1 Introduction
1. The UK Climate Change Programme was
put in place in 1994. Its aim was to return carbon emissions to
1990 levels by 2000. The previous Labour Government set an additional
domestic target of reducing carbon dioxide emissions to80% of
1990 levels by 2010.[1]
2. The previous Government's announcement,
in 2006, that it expected to fail to meet the 2010 target led
to various non-governmental organisations (NGOs) campaigning for
tougher targets and, eventually, the introduction of the Climate
Change Bill in 2007.[2]
The resulting Act of Parliament[3]
set the UK legally binding targets for reducing emissions by 80%
by 2050 compared to 1990, an interim target of a 34% reduction
by 2020, and an obligation for the Government to set five yearly
carbon budgets.
3. The Climate Change Act[4]
also established the Committee on Climate Change, whose role is
to examine, and report annually, on Government policies for meeting
these budgets, provide advice on policies to Government, including
advice on adaptation to a changing climate.
4. The Department of Energy and Climate
Change (DECC), together with other departments, has a wide range
ofclimate focussed policiesaimed at achieving the emissions reductions
it has committed to. These policies, together with actions and
milestones, are set out in the UK Carbon Plan, which was published
by DECC in December 2011:
This plan sets out how the UK will
achieve decarbonisation within the framework of our energy policy:
to make the transition to a low carbon economy while maintaining
energy security, and minimising costs to consumers, particularly
those in poorer households.[5]
5. The Government's policy to tackle
a changing climate is firmly based on scientific advice that there
is a need to reduce carbon emissions and to decarbonise the UK
economy. The International Panel on Climate Change published the
first part of its Fifth Assessment Report in September 2013. This
concluded that there was clear evidence of warming:
Warming of the climate system is
unequivocal, and since the 1950s, many of the observed changes
are unprecedented over decades to millennia. The atmosphere and
ocean have warmed, the amounts of snow and ice have diminished,
sea level has risen, and the concentrations of greenhouse gases
have increased.[6]
And:
Human influence on the climate system
is clear. This is evident from the increasing greenhouse gas concentrations
in the atmosphere, positive radiative forcing, observed warming,
and understanding of the climate system. [7]
6. More recently the Royal Society restated
the current understanding of the link between human activity and
climate change:
Human activitiesespeciallythe
burning of fossil fuels since the start of the Industrial Revolutionhaveincreased
atmospheric CO2 concentrations by about 40%, with more than half
the increase occurring since 1970. Since 1900, the global average
surface temperature has increased by about 0.8 °C (1.4 °F).
This has been accompanied by warming of the ocean, a rise in sea
level, a strong decline in Arctic sea ice, and many other associated
climate effects. Much of this warming has occurred in the last
four decades. Detailed analyses have shown that the warming during
this period is mainly a result of the increased concentrations
of CO2 and other greenhouse gases. Continued emissions of these
gases will cause further climate change, including substantial
increases in global average surface temperature and important
changes in regional climate.[8]
7. The Government is clear that it accepts
the science. The Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC)
states on its website "the scientific evidence that the world's
climate is changing is clear and extensive".[9]The
website for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
(DEFRA) states that "the world's climate and weather patterns
are changing. Global temperatures are rising, causing more extreme
weather events, like flooding and heatwaves".[10]
Our inquiry
8. Although government policy has been
consistent since at least 1994 and there is wide scientific consensus
about the causes of climate change, there has been increasing
debate in the public arena in recent years on the validity of
the science. The Government accepts that its plans will increase
costs in the first instance, though it considers that there will
be an eventual cost saving.[11]
We were concerned that it would be very difficult to gain acceptance
for even short term increased costs to individuals through energy
bills and taxes unless there was confidence among the general
public of the need to implement these policies.
9. We launched our inquiry on 28 February
2013. We asked for evidence on the level of understanding amongst
the public of climate change, what voices the public trust for
information on climate change, how understanding could be improved,
and the role of the media and government in doing this. We received
more than sixty submissions of written evidence and held seven
oral evidence sessions.
10. This report first considers the
level of public understanding of climate science and the potential
consequences that scientists project from increasing emissions
of carbon and other greenhouse gases. It then considers the communication
by various bodies by which the general public might become more
informed, including scientists, the media and the Government.
Finally we consider what the Government will need to do if it
wants to achieve its policy aims with regard to climate and demonstrate
an evidence based approach to climate policies.
11. Throughout the inquiry we have sought
to ascertain what the public understand by the term 'climate change',
what experts mean when they use it and what Government 'climate
change' policy encompasses.We did not find clear agreed definition
amongst responses from our witnesses.[12]
· Professor Slingo defined
climate change as "something that transcends the natural
variability of the climate on a range of time scales from seasonal
to multidecadal.Within, say, our lifetime or longersay
100 yearsis the climate different now than it was 100 years
ago when averaged over several decades?"
· Professor Walport agreed:
"the climate is the average of the weather over a long period
of time, and, if you compare two different periods of time and
you see that the climate has changed, that is climate change.The
issue here, of course, is the human contribution to that over
a very short time scale".
· Professor Rapley also agreed:
"that a better term than climate change was global energy
imbalance".He went further preferring the term "climate
disruption": "climate disruption because it is more
descriptive of what this energy imbalance threatens to cause".
· Catherine Brahic's definition
was "it is the accumulation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere
as a result of burning fossil fuels, by and large, and the consequences
of that accumulation.Carbon gets locked into the earth over the
course of millions of years in the form of fossil fuels.It takes
millions of years for that process to happen naturally.In a matter
of seconds, when we burn fossil fuelsoil, coal, natural
gaswe release it into the atmosphere, and as a result it
creates an imbalance in a cycle that is normally timed and very
balanced."
· Professor MacKay's definition
was "climate is the statistics of many variables: temperatures;
precipitations; wind speeds; ocean currents; ice masses.The climate
is the collection of all those variables, including salinity and
acidity of oceans; and climate change is a change in those statistics."
· Minister of State Gregory
Barker MP said: "climate change is climate change" or
alternatively "climate change is a changing climate".He
did not believe that climate change was a technical term.
12. In order to communicate what
climate change is, the Government must agree a clear consistent
and precise definition which can be related to direct observations
and measurements. This should be based on Professors Slingo's
and Rapley's definitions.
1 Department of the Environment, Transport and the
Regions, Climate Change, The UK Programme, Cm 4913, November
2000 Back
2 Climate
Change Bill [HL]Research
Paper RP08/52, House of Commons Library, June 2008 Back
3
Climate Change Act 2008 Back
4 Ibid Back
5
Department of Energy and Climate Change, The Carbon Plan: Delivering
our low carbon future, December 2011, p3 Back
6
IPCC, "Summary for Policymakers", Climate Change
2013: The Physical Science Basis. Contribution of Working Group
I to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel
on Climate Change, 2013 Back
7 Ibid Back
8 The
Royal Society, Climate Change, Evidence and Causes, February
2014 Back
9
GOV.UK, Supporting international action on climate change,
[website as of 18 March 2014] Back
10 GOV.UK,
Adapting to climate change, [website as of 18 March 2014] Back
11
Department of Energy and Climate Change,Estimated impacts of
energy and climate change polices on energy prices and bills,
March 2013, p5 Back
12
Q298, Q409, Q45, Q174, Q370, Q369 Back
|