Mitigating Carbon Emission in the United Kingdom - Case Study Example

Mitigating Carbon Emission in the UK Name Course Lecturer Date Executive Summary Climate change is one of the greatest and challenging environmental threats in mankind’s history. Greenhouse gas emissions, and primarily the carbon dioxide (CO2) from fossil fuels, is a significant contributing factor in climate change. The atmospheric levels of CO2 has more than doubled since the beginning of the industrial revolution, these levels of carbon are projected to increase more rapidly as the global economy continues to grow at higher rate. The United Kingdom (UK) has had a very promising approach in mitigating climate change. It is the leading economy not only in the European Union but also among the OECD countries in mitigating climate change. The United Kingdom government has been very active in formulating policies and standards aimed at reducing and mitigating carbon emissions. This report provides a critical evaluation of the political and technological drivers in mitigating carbon emission in the United Kingdom. The report provides detailed analyses of how the UK politically and technologically drives climate change mitigation with so much success. Table of Contents 1.0 Introduction 1 2.0 Political and Technological Drivers Associated with Mitigating CO2 Emissions in the UK 2 3.0 Conclusion 10 4.0 References 11 1.0 Introduction The United Kingdom has been at the fore front in pursuing political and technical policies of mitigating carbon emissions. It has pursued policies aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions at a relatively early date; United Kingdom has a comprehensive set of measures and policies in place to mitigate carbon emissions. Encouragingly, it has set clear goals and policies for reduction of emissions, these targets are consistent with the international targets of mitigating global warming. These policies and goals have pioneered statutory foundations of target setting in the United Kingdom. On the international stage, the United Kingdom has been a very active protagonist of global policies of mitigating human induced climate change. As the report indicates, the United Kingdom is likely to reduce its emissions my more than its near term domestic goals and its goals as under the Kyoto protocol clearly outperforming most of the OECD countries in the latter respect. However, some of this success has been due to some “one off” factors such as the reduction of non –CO2 and ‘dash for gas’ greenhouse gases in the 1990s as well as the recent recession, instead of the explicit climate change policies. United Kingdom has an ambitious 2050 target on carbon emission mitigation. This report analyses the United Kingdom’s current political and technological drivers associated with mitigating CO2 emissions. The report pays specific focus on mitigating carbon emissions in the United Kingdom. It first examines the policies that UK has put in place to mitigate carbon emissions. It then discusses the political and technological drivers related to mitigating CO2. The report discusses how these drivers are designed to mitigate and reduce CO2 emissions. 2.0 Political and Technological Drivers Associated with Mitigating CO2 Emissions in the UK The United Kingdom has formulated and implemented complex set of policies and approaches to mitigate emissions since early 1980s. As Smith et al., (2000) enlightens, the objective of the policies and approaches has been to stimulate development, price emissions and deploy clean energy as well as improve energy efficiency. Conversely, its policies of promoting efficient adaptation to uncertain impacts off climate change are immature. Importantly, United Kingdom recognises the necessity of involving the international collaboration on adaptation and mitigating CO2 emissions given the global nature of the climate change challenge. The UK has a well-documented track record of international action on mitigating carbon emissions. It has a cross party commitment to a strong domestic policy drivers, through this, the UK is setting a worthwhile example at the international stage. It has reliably been in the frontline of the developed economies in promoting international action on climate change, this is application of its political goodwill to mitigate carbon emissions at the global arena as Davis & Caldeira (2010) asserts. This is a strong political power in driving carbon emission mitigation. In 1995, the United Kingdom committed to reducing CO2 levels by 12.5% below the 1990 levels by 2008 to 2012. The UK has been able to achieve this and even surpass, it has set new targets as well. Before 1995, the CO2 emissions were above 1990 levels; this is a great achievement by the UK. Between 2008 and 2012, the UK reduced CO2 emissions by 22% below 1990 levels; this is equivalent of 3018 million tonnes of CO2 (Climate Change Act, 2015). In 2013, the net CO2 emissions were estimated to be 464.3Mt, this represents a 2.1% lower than in 2012 emissions of 474.1Mt. This indicates a huge decrease in CO2 emissions in the UK. Essentially, UK has made big strides in mitigating and reducing CO2 emissions after the Kyoto protocol in 1995. It has been able to reduce CO2 emissions by 30% below the 1990 levels since 1995; this is a huge difference (Climate Change Act, 2015). The UK has intensely supported international climate change negotiations through the United Nations organisation on climate change known as United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). It has also channeled its influence through the European Union along with unilateral efforts in supporting mitigation in the undeveloped and developing countries (Allen, Hammond & McManus 2008). For example, in July 2005 at G8 summit, the United Kingdom put forward a focus on climate change and poverty reduction. Soon after the G8 summit, the government commissioned stem review on the economies of climate change. This helped to push mitigation of carbon emissions to the centre of the policy debate in UK as well as in other OECD countries (Food 2009). The UK offered a very strong support for global climate change agreement at the UNFCCC conference of parties in Copenhagen in 2009 (commonly known as the COP15) as well as in Cancun in 2010 (commonly known as COP16). Although the COP15 was short of expectations, the UK continues to push for a coordinated and concrete action on mitigating carbon emissions. Consequently, the UK government published an emission reduction target for 1990 to 2020 from 20% to 30%; this is now an official UK policy on mitigating carbon emission in the United Kingdom. This is a key political driver in mitigating CO2 emissions in the UK as Food (2008) asserts. In 2008, the UK parliament enacted a Climate Change Act. The act sets a legitimately binding goal of 80% reductions in emissions from 1990 to 2050. The act also set a medium term goal of 34% reduction by 2020; all these targets were adopted with further promise of tightening the event of global agreement on climate change (Edwards-Jones et al., 2009). This act, together with carbon emission reduction target, provides greater focus on robust and substantial household energy savings methods such as insulation and components aimed at those valuable to fuel deficiency. The climate change act set a total lifetime savings needed from the energy suppliers, over the period to 2012, at 293 million tonnes of CO2, this is very ambitious target in mitigating carbon emission in the UK. The UK government has set very high policies and targets in curbing carbon emissions in the United Kingdom, these policies and targets are much higher than those set by the fellow OECD nations, developed economies and European Union nations. This indicates the political drive in mitigating CO2 emissions in the UK (Bolin 2007). Technological innovations and policies are essential in the long term; they ensure that United Kingdom’s step change in reduction of emissions is delivered in time and at reasonable cost. While it is technically possible to achieve the set level of mitigating emissions using the current technologies, it is also likely to be increasingly expensive. This is because the cheaper means of mitigating carbon emissions are exhausted and the fundamental structural changes like the replacement of fuel powered transport are not available (Cannell 2003). According to Bradley et al., (2005), one of the most notable technological drivers of United Kingdom’s mitigation of CO2 emission is carbon capture and storage. This method significantly reduces the greenhouse gas emissions. Through this method, carbon is captured by way of collecting CO2, which would otherwise be released to the atmosphere when the fossil fuels are used, to produce energy trajectories as Gibbins et al., (2010) explains. These energy vectors do not emit carbon at their point of use, for example heat and electricity or possibly hydrogen. Carbon free forms are good means to decarbonizing. They contribute to decarbonizing the energy consumption sectors of the economy, such as buildings and transport, beyond large scale production of heat and current electricity. When CO2 is captured, it is compressed to around 100 times atmospheric pressure, it becomes a dense liquid. It is then carried by pipeline to sedimentary basins to the offshore in the North Sea in the UK (Gibbins et al., 2010). It is pumped in to the porous layers of rocks more than one kilometer underground; the overlying impermeable rock layers prevent the fair dense liquid from leakage back up to the surface (Gibbins et al., 2010). The use of renewable sources of energy is highly recommended by the UK government. There was a perceived shortage of fossil fuels due to oil crisis in the 1970s and 1980s (Gibbins et al., 2010). Importantly, carbon capture and store is a response to a possible surplus of fossil fuels compared to the capacity to emit CO2 to the atmosphere without causing dangerous climate change. Although it is relatively a new technological; development it is a reliable and viable tool for tackling carbon emission. This is a modern technological drive by the UK of tackling and reducing carbon emission in the atmosphere in the UK. Actually, the UK government included carbon capture store technology in the 2010 Energy Act. This is an incentive mechanism by the government for demonstrating its efforts in carbon emissions. This is a significant step forward in race to reducing CO2 emissions. The same mechanism is used in the UK in an advanced way; it is a crucial driver in introducing emissions performance standards as Giddens (2009) suggests. The committee on climate change suggests that electricity supply in the UK will possibly need to achieve an emission intensity of 70gCO2/kWh or less by 2030 compared to the current value of 500gCO2/kWh. This would need fossil fuel plants that run for extended periods to emit at most 100gCO2/kWh, this can only be achieved by implementing the carbon capture and store technology. This indicates the significance of carbon capture and store technology, the UK government have used it to a great success in mitigating carbon emission (Committee on Climate Change, 2015). The carbon capture ad store (CCS) technology goes a long way in reducing the lifecycle of the CO2 emissions as well as from fossil fuel power plants as Haszeldine et al., (2005) underlines. While there are enough components of integrated systems of carbon capture and storage and they are in use in large scale, it is necessary for the UK government to increase its usage. The CCS components are readily available and the expertise to execute the technology is available as well, the government should use it in extraction of fossil fuel and in refining industry as Weidema et al., (2008) recommends. This will greatly reduce the carbon emissions; more carbon will be compressed and taken underground where it cannot cause any harm. There should be well defined regulations for large scale deployment of CCS; the government should make it mandatory for all refining firms and other organizations using fossil fuel to have CCS. This would help the government in keeping the carbon emissions low; it is a very effective driver of mitigation climate change by the United Kingdom (Energydesk, 2014). The United Kingdom has effective and promising policies on climate change withy aspiring as well as legally binding emissions reduction goals. These are supported by high formulated guidelines, institutions and legislations. The United Kingdom’s approach to mitigating carbon emission is not about reducing emissions, the government endeavors to redesign its entire economy to be a far less carbon reliant and reliant economy than it is at present (Sustainable Prosperity, 2012). Forests play a very important role in storing carbon. Trees help to reduce the carbon from the atmosphere as they use carbon to manufacture food. Moreover, forests influence water, weather systems and climate. More importantly, forests build countries resilience to extreme weather conditions, they help people to change and adapt to changing climatic conditions as Wiedmann & Minx (2008) notes. According to the United Nations research on use of forests around the world in 2012, it found that around 1.2 billion deprived people directly hinge on forests for their living. Significantly, forests are a custodian of more than 80 percent of the world’s species. Such is the importance of forests. The United Kingdom has taken an effort to support the maintenance, improvement and growth of forests not only in the UK but also in many countries around the world as a way of mitigating carbon emissions. According to the report provided by IPCC (intergovernmental panel on climate change) in 2013, a net of CO2 emissions from land use change, largely deforestation, represent about ten percent of the total CO2 emissions. The United Kingdom has designed a mechanism of increasing the land area covered by forests. In addition, the UK government has a framework under which it supports developing countries that are able and willing to reduce emissions from deforestation and subsequently invest in low carbon trails to ecologically sensitive development as Raupach et al., (2007) reports. The UK sets aside £3.87 billion every year for international climate fund. This is a major political drive UK on the global arena as it is able to control carbon emissions. As his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales asserted, the forests and ecosystem play an important role in addressing climate change, source of food, income, energy, water and preserving biodiversity (Barker 2015). Forests and woodlands contain considerable amount of carbon in trees, soil and other vegetation. Woodlands are hugely significant in water, energy and carbon cycles as Righelato & Spracklen (2007) emphasizes. Cutting down trees or deforestation releases CO2 to the air. Likewise, growing trees absorbs CO2 from the atmosphere. The forests and air also exchange other gases such as nitrous oxide and methane. As such, woodlands are crucial components of the UK’s carbon mitigation plans. The management and function of forests and woodlands in the UK is very effective as indicated by the forestry department, they play a critical role in mitigating climate change. They help to abate emissions. The forestry department estimates that the amount of carbon held in forests and woodlands is around 880 Mt C (million tonnes of CO2). The biggest percentage of carbon in trees, that is in wood roots and stems. Over 75% of the UK’s forests carbon is help in the soil. This is very important as this is equivalent to 8 years of current UK fuel emissions as well as over 26 times the annual target of CO2 emissions by the year 2050 in the UK. This is the reason the UK government is very keen in conserving woodlands and forests (Morison 2015). The UK is a signatory of the Kyoto protocol, which was signed in 1995. Consequently, the government has taken major steps in mitigating UK’s carbon emissions from greenhouse gases, one of these major steps is the enactment of the Climate Change Act in 2008 as Davis & Caldeira (2010) notes. The Act commits United Kingdom to 80% emission reduction from 1990 levels by year 2050. This act was formulated and passed as means to develop economically credible emissions mitigation paths. The act requires the government to evaluate the country’s climate change risks and prepare strategic plans to address the risks. The government is also tasked with encouraging critical organisation to take stock of carbon emissions. The department of environment and rural affairs is tasked with formulating domestic policies for reducing carbon emissions in the UK. As a result, the department develops measures to address risk set out by the climate change risk assessment (Department for Environment and Rural Affairs, 2015). Another driver that UK uses to mitigate CO2 emissions is monitoring the progress on carbon emissions reduction. The Committee on Climate Change has indicators for tracking carbon emissions, development of relevant government policies and the progress in low carbon investments as Lal (2004) observes. These indicators allow the committee to identify areas where targets are not met or missed (Committee on Climate Change, 2015). For example, the progress of the government policies and standards like the Green Deal as well as those involving Electricity Market Reform. The committee provides indicators that measure the grans of CO2 in an average unit of electricity as well as how low the grams could go if the existing power infrastructure is used differently. Such indicators are very important as they help all departments, organizations and institutions to be on their toes in meeting the carbon emission targets (Committee on Climate Change, 2015). Whilst various emission mitigation approaches are extensively held to deliver low cost abatement, the UK government has a very effective system of mitigating carbon emission, the tender price approach. This mechanism focuses on the cost expenditure of carbon in abating emissions instead of transferring revenues. This approach reduces any uncertainly as well as cost of uncertainty for the government and the organizations. In addition, the approach combines a set of incentives that reimburses for all externalities related to abatement investment. Equally, the government treats charge collected on carbon emissions as a factor cost and not as a tax. This are investments for mitigating CO2 emissions, they are treated just like any other innovative investments to reduce cost. However, this technological approach has not been widely adopted by many organizations. This is because most of investors in this abatement technology face uncertainty (not quantifiable risk); as such they are not able to apply standard discounting techniques. Encouragingly, the technology is gaining momentum as organizations benefit from the system and hence are adopting it (Molyneaux, Foster & Wagner 2010). 3.0 Conclusion Mitigating carbon emissions is one of the most important duties of the UK government in protecting the future of its citizens. The government, through its various departments and agencies, has put in all the necessary measures in place to mitigate carbon emissions and climate change as a whole. As the report discusses, the UK has used political and technological drivers to mitigate carbon emissions such as carbon capture and storage technology where carbon is compressed to liquid and taken deep underground, conserving forests and woodlands and increasing land area covered by forests, tender price technology where organizations incur cost in mitigating carbon emissions, enactment of laws such as the Energy Act 2008 and Climate Change Act 2008 and international financing of climate change as discussed in the report. Essentially, the political and technological drivers of mitigating carbon emissions in the UK are very effective. 4.0 References Climate Change Act 2015, The Climate Change Act and UK regulations. Retrieved March 31, 2015, from Committee on Climate Change: http://www.theccc.org.uk/tackling-climate-change/the-legal-landscape/global-action-on-climate-change/ Allen, S. R., Hammond, G. P., & McManus, M. 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