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Britain proposes bold laws to cut carbon emissions

The British government proposed bold new environmental legislation that would set legally binding, long-term limits on carbon emissions -- a move it hopes will prompt the US, China and India to follow suit.

The draft climate change bill would be the first legislation in an industrialized country to set such long-range goals, including a carbon budget set every five years that would cap carbon dioxide levels and create an independent body to report on progress. The proposal on Tuesday also set binding targets as far ahead as 2050 for reducing carbon emissions.

"This is a revolutionary step in confronting the threat of climate change," Prime Minister Tony Blair told reporters. "It sets an example to the rest of the world."

Britain's political parties have jostled in recent weeks for the "green" vote, seeking to show their environmental credentials in hopes of securing a key battleground in the country's next national election. Both Blair's Labour Party and the opposition Conservatives have seized on the issue, devoting more media time to the ozone layer than to British troops in Iraq.

Stung by ever more bad news in Iraq, Blair's camp has increasingly focused its attention on issues in which it can seize the initiative -- such as the environment. Blair says he plans to step down by September and a success in brokering a global carbon pact could be seen as a significant closing achievement.

Blair hopes Britain and Germany -- which holds the EU and the G8 presidencies -- can lead work on a new global pact to curb emissions. The next step is getting the US, China and India to make similar commitments, he said.

The bill must be approved by both houses of parliament to become law. The government hopes it will become law in the first half of next year.

Under the plan, the government would report annually to parliament on work to meet the five-year carbon budget limits.

An independent advisory committee would check their progress and could compel government officials to appear before a judge to explain any failures. Judges would be able to issue public warnings to the government, or force it to buy credits allowing greater emissions under international carbon trading schemes, Blair's Downing Street office said.

Governments would need to "count the carbon, just as they count the pennies," Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown -- Blair's likely successor -- said.

Brown has laid out plans to help the public reduce emissions, proposing the scrapping of standby modes on electric appliances like TVs and a ban on non-low-energy lightbulbs.

EU leaders agreed last week that the bloc will produce 20 percent of its power through renewable energy, as opposed to its current average of 6 percent.

Under the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, Britain is committed to reducing greenhouse-gas emissions by 12.5 percent from 1990 levels by 2008 to 2012, as part of an overall EU target of an 8 percent reduction. Some 10,000 power plants and other industrial facilities across the EU have been assigned quotas for maximum emissions and can buy and sell allowances in a Europe-wide trading system.

Environmentalists and opposition groups welcomed the draft legislation, but some said the targets should be more ambitious.

The bill called for emissions to be reduced by 60 percent by 2050 and by as much as 32 percent by 2020. Targets were based on 1990 levels.

The Green Party said emissions should be reduced by 90 percent by 2050.

"Their insistence on mediocre -- and dangerous -- targets means all their efforts do not go nearly far enough," Green Party spokeswoman Sian Berry said.

Christian Aid said the targets should be beefed up to an 80 percent reduction by 2050. By 2020, the charity said, the goal should be a reduction of 40 percent.
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