At the Spring Summit in March, EU leaders formulated a unilateral commitment to reduce Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions in the EU-27 by 20% before 2020. The UK has recently released the first draft of its Climate Energy Bill. Germany has likewise published a draft of its Climate Agenda 2020. Both action plans go much further than the European target.
The German Climate Agenda 2020 was unveiled by Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel in the run-up to the G8 meeting in Heiligendamm. It proposes eight measures intended to reduce 2020 levels of GHG emissions by 40%:
The plan excludes a revival of nuclear power.
The UK Climate Change Bill sets a target of between a 26 and 32% reduction in GHG emissions by 2020. The UK also proposes a second target of 60% reductions by 2050. The Bill would be the first climate change action plan that would be legally binding. A Committee on Climate Change will be created to provide independent expert advice and to hold the government accountable if targets are not reached.
The principal measures used to reach the targets would be:
The draft plan has already received severe criticism in the UK. Some claim that it is doomed to fail because it is based on forecasts that are far too optimistic, while others criticise the targets for not being ambitious enough.