Osborne’s carbon conceits

George Osborne told a Conservative Party increasingly wary of expensive climate policies that Britain needs to “cut [its] carbon emissions no slower but also no faster than our fellow countries in Europe. That’s what I’ve insisted on in the recent carbon budget.” What he actually insisted on was what Chris Huhne described as “a review of progress in early 2014 to ensure our own carbon targets are in line with the EU’s”. Even if that review is serious, and energy intensive industries have every reason to be sceptical, it is only going to hold our policy to the same standard as today. The current targets require us to cut our emissions faster than our European competitors, and the policies we are adopting to meet them are far more draconian.

Just look at our current 2020 target. Here is a graph from the European Commission which shows how Britain is cutting emissions more aggressively than Germany, France, Italy or Spain — much more aggressively than the EU average.