ABSTRACT
In order to address the problem of climate change, and meet its sustainable development objectives, the UK government set a challenging long-term target of reducing the UK’s carbon emissions by 60 per cent from their 1990 levels by 2050 (Royal Commision on Environmental Pollution (RCEP), 2000; Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), 2003). Although the government is struggling to meet its interim target of a 20 per cent reduction in emissions by 2010, it is committed at least to satisfy its obligations under the Kyoto Protocol of a 12.5 per cent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions between 2008 and 2012.
