This story [1] was originally published on OpenDemocracy.net/en/.
   License: Creative Commons 4.0 - Attributions/No Derivities/
   international.
   --------------------------------------------------------------


The UK claims to be a world leader in fighting climate change. It’s wrong
By:   []
Date: None

British politicians have long touted the UK’s climate leadership on the world stage. The official story is certainly impressive: between 1990 and 2016 the UK cut greenhouse gas emissions by 41% – more than any other country in the G7. The UK was also the first country in the world to set statutory carbon emissions reduction targets in the Climate Change Act 2008, and the first major economy to pass net-zero emissions law in 2019.

Just this week the UK government adopted what it described as “the world’s most ambitious climate change target” when it passed its sixth Carbon Budget into law.

As the UK prepares to host COP26, the image of the UK as a climate leader will be projected around the world. But does the reality really live up to the hype?

Misleading figures

The first problem with the UK’s climate narrative is that it is based on misleading figures. The UK’s consumption-based emissions (or ‘carbon footprint’) declined by only 15% between 1990 and 2016 – much less than claimed by the government. This is because nearly half of the UK’s carbon footprint relates to goods and services imported from overseas but consumed in the UK – something which neither the official figures nor the UK’s net-zero target account for.

This means that emissions relating to products including clothing, processed foods and electronics that are imported into the UK are allocated to the manufacturing country’s emissions, not the UK’s – even though they are produced to meet UK demand.

The rosy picture painted by the government therefore overlooks a stark reality: the UK is outsourcing a significant proportion of its emissions to other, often poorer countries.

This isn’t the only area where the reality falls short of the rhetoric. The UK gives more subsidies to fossil fuel companies than any other country in Europe; recently granted new oil and gas exploration licenses and permits for the North Sea; and is attempting to open a new coal mine in Cumbria. Is this really what ‘world-leading’ action looks like?

‘False solutions’

While to its credit the UK has set legally binding emissions targets, the problems lie with its plan for achieving them. Rather than investing in immediately available solutions to create green jobs, the UK is relying heavily on so-called “false solutions”, which are commercially unviable, hinder meaningful decarbonisation efforts, and negatively impact biodiversity protection and human rights abroad.

The UK’s pledges are heavily reliant on unproven ‘offsetting schemes’ that will supposedly reduce carbon emissions sometime in the future. However, the promise of these schemes deters and delays action we could take now to reduce our emissions. Research shows that these delays could lead to a catastrophic additional 1.4°C of warming. So while the UK professes to show ‘leadership’, it is doing so on the basis of socially problematic and technologically unsound pretences that fall significantly far from its fair share of action.

[1] Url: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/oureconomy/the-uk-claims-to-be-a-world-leader-in-fighting-climate-change-its-wrong/