UK prime minister Boris Johnson’s pledge to accelerate carbon emissions cuts by 15 years will commit the UK to one of the strongest legally binding emissions targets in the world.
The new legally binding commitment will set the UK on course to cut carbon emissions by 78 per cent (compared to 1990 levels) by 2035. It will replace an earlier commitment to reduce emissions by at least 68 per cent.
The UK government claims that the ambitious new target will enable the UK to take a position of global leadership on climate change and enable the UK to seize the new economic opportunities presented by green technologies.
However, whilst many have welcomed the government’s increasingly ambitious stance, the latest announcement has also been met with scepticism from a number of quarters. Some – including the current shadow business secretary Ed Miliband – have accused the government of failing to match rhetoric with reality, suggesting that it lacks a clear strategy for delivering on the new target. Others have suggested that many areas of the economy will be negatively impacted by a tightening of emissions targets.
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17 months or two and a half years - which is it?