UK Scientists Warn Cutting Carbon Emissions by a Third ‘Not Enough’

March 18, 2009

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Scientists in the United Kingdom are saying that a government plan to reduce carbon emissions by one-third by 2020 is not enough to prevent changes to the climate.

Scientists from the Tyndall Centre of Climate Change say that the information the government used to calculate emissions reduction targets is “misleading,” according to the Telegraph.

In order to prevent temperatures from rising above a level that causes extreme weather events, droughts and food shortage, they say emissions cuts will have to run much deeper.

The Tyndall Centre report was commissioned by

Environmental group Friends of the Earth commissioned the Tyndall Centre report, which found that the UK’s emissions-cutting goals were based on “over-optimistic” predictions about the timing of peaks and declines of global emissions.

The UK aims to slash carbon emissions 80 percent by 2050. The Committee for Climate Change, a group established to advise the government on interim targets, put forth the recommendatoin that emissions be cut at least 34 percent by 2020.

However, the Tyndall Centre said the cuts should amount to 42 percent, and the cuts should come domestically instead of through funding clean technology projects in foreign nations through offsets.

According to a recent study, more and more Americans are convinced that global warming is an exaggerated issue.

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