MPs criticise UK climate targets

The joint committee which examined the draft Climate Change Bill said its target of a minimum 60% reduction in carbon emissions by 2050 "may not be adequate".

It also expressed concerns about the legal enforceability of the Bill's budgets and targets and called for aviation and shipping emissions to be included in the measures.

The committee's report said: "Although the draft Climate Change Bill is an extremely encouraging sign that the UK Government intends to take the issue of climate change seriously, it is clearly the first of what is likely to be a series of legislative measures regarding the climate change issue."

The report said the 60% target "may not be adequate to prevent global temperatures rising above dangerous levels" and welcomed the Government's emphasis that this is the minimum reduction. The Bill requires the UK carbon budget to be "at least 26% but not more than 32%" lower than 1990 levels by 2020 as an interim target.

The report states that there is "no compelling reason" for the upper limit and calls for its removal. The committee also called for close monitoring and reporting of other greenhouse gases apart form carbon dioxide to "ensure that complacency does not set in".

The proposed oversight body the Committee on Climate Change must be properly resourced and given sufficient powers. "It is hard to imagine any non-parliamentary body, other than the Monetary Policy Committee of the Bank of England, whose role has the potential for greater impact on individuals, their families and society as a whole," the report said.

Local government should also be given a more prominent role in helping communities "adapt to the realities of climate change," the committee recommended.

The joint committee's Labour chairman, Lord Puttnam said: "We believe this to be an exceptionally significant piece of legislation because of the scale of the issues it seeks to address, the impact its enactment is likely to have on individuals and communities and the Government's intention that it should serve as an overarching framework for further and more detailed complementary legislation."

Environment Secretary Hilary Benn pledged ministers would "reflect carefully" on the report. He said: "Government must rightly lead in combating climate change, and that's why we will put this ambitious legislation in place. It will be the first national legislation of its kind in the world, helping us to cut emissions and showing the world that we're determined to make our contribution as part of a global agreement."