Climate Change Action - The UK Leader or Laggard. A special report for the All Party Parliamentary Environment Group.
Political pressure for action on climate change, in the UK especially, has been growing. All three major political parties now highlight this issue as a fundimental challenge to the present and any future government. In May 2006 the UK Government relaunched its climate change programme (CCP).
This represented an opportunity to reinvigorate UK action to address the growing challenge faced, setting the way forward in this area into the future. This report analyses and explains some of the key challenges being faced and the action necessary to address these. Conclusions are drawn as to action proposed by the government meets the level of ambition necessary to achieve change and/or the perceived ambitions of the government based on historical targets and commitments ie whether the UK is currently a leader or lagging behind in terms of ambition and achievement. The report assesses the 2006 CCP and based on criticisms of this document proposes a way forward for policy making on climate change in the future.