Government Publishes draft Climate Change Bill - 13 March 2007
The draft Climate Change Bill, the first of its kind in any country, and accompanying strategy, set out a framework for moving the UK to a low-carbon economy. It demonstrates the UK’s leadership as progress continues towards establishing a post-Kyoto global emissions agreement.
The draft bill will be subject to a full public consultation alongside pre-legislative scrutiny in Parliament.
Full details of the draft bill, including the consultation documents, are available on the Defra website.
Your Climate Website
To see how this region is already contributing to the move to a low-carbon economy please look at the region's climate change website www.yourclimate.org This site includes the Action Plan documents and by being updated on a regular basis it continues to support the plan by providing up to date information, progress reports and links to key resources. This site should be your first port of call for regional climate change issues.
Background
Recognition of the significance of climate change has risen dramatically over recent years.
Climate change, triggered by our reliance on fossil fuels, is already causing human suffering and environmental damage as extreme weather events such as floods, storms and droughts increase and intensify.
Government is taking a twin-track approach to the problem: working to minimise emissions regionally and nationally whilst planning to adapt to the consequences of a changing climate.
What are we doing ?
To lead the regional response to climate change, the Government Office has had a Climate Change Co-ordinator in post since June 2004. The key aims of this post, in partnership with a climate change steering group, have been to:
Build a wide network of regional stakeholders
Enhance communications to regional stakeholders and to the public
Develop a stronger evidence base
Ensure regional and local strategies consider climate change
Assist business and the public sector to take positive action
The partnership was responsible for developing Your Climate - the Climate Change Action Plan for Yorkshire and The Humber to provide a framework to deliver these aims.
What else has been done?
The UK Climate Change Programme (UKCCP) 2006
The new UKCCP was launched on 28 March 2006 and builds on the UK's position of leading the world in promoting global action on climate change. It sets out policies and priorities for action in the UK and internationally. The measures to reduce emissions target every sector of the economy. They include: a stricter emissions cap for industry; measures to encourage the uptake of biofuels in petrol; tighter building regulations; measures to improve household efficiency, and a renewed emphasis on encouraging and enabling the general public.
UKCCP 2006 also sets out briefly the role to be played by the English regions as Regional bodies have powers and responsibilitiesthat will impact on the long-term shift to low carbon such as the responsibility RDAs such as Yorkshire Forward have for regional economic development.
Climate change scenarios and impacts for Yorkshire and The Humber
In June 2002 the Government Office and a range of regional partners published the Regional Climate Change Impacts Study, ‘Warming up the Region’. This examined the climate scenarios published by the UK Climate Impacts Programme and identified the likely impacts and the adaptation responses required.
This is now informing much of the adaptation work in the region.
Greenhouse gas emissions from the region
Climate change is caused by the emission into the global atmosphere of six greenhouse gases primarily from our consumption of fossil fuels for energy. To identify the level of impact that the Yorkshire and Humber region has on global climate change, an emissions inventory has been compiled. This identifies historic and present emission trends by sector and forecasts emission up to 2010.
This inventory enables the region to take a strategic approach to reducing emissions. Specifically, it has informed the greenhouse gas targets adopted in the Regional Spatial Strategy and the Regional Economic Strategy.
