Energy and Environment 2008: Securing our Low Carbon Economy Conference and Exhibition will attempt to address a variety of issues central to achieving progress on this agenda, bringing together the key industry players and those at the forefront of policy innovation and service delivery.
The Government has set the wheels in motion, providing the legislative foundations for the long delivery of the UK’s energy and climate change strategy with the publication of the Energy Bill, alongside the Planning and Climate Change Bill – a three-fold initiative.
These legislative frameworks have been put in place as part of the UK’s response to achieving 25-40% reductions on the 1990 global warming emissions by 2020, as discussed at end-2007, by 189 nations present at the historic UN Climate talks in Bali. The aim of these talks was to set a roadmap for the future. By late 2009 in Copenhagen, it is hoped that more concrete targets along this roadmap will be set.
The Government has already responded positively to the EU target of reducing carbon emissions by 20% by 2020 and 60-80% by 2050; a delicate balancing act of enabling economic expansion, while minimising the impact of this on the environment.
Gordon Brown, Prime Minister, recently set out the seriousness of the challenge: “By 2020, Britain needs to be producing just 155-310 million tonnes – less than half as much as now, in an economy 250% larger.” This will require a “fourth technological revolution”, requiring “a million people employed here in our environmental industries within the next two decades. And this will be essential to our energy security.”
