Critically discuss the impact of the most current UNFCC Paris Conference of Parties decisions on the energy policy of the United Kingdom.
The global economic growth is associated with the use of energy. The uses of energy have also increased the emission of greenhouse gases that is a closely mirror reflection of the economic expansion. Energy usage contributes 70% of greenhouse gas emission and oil and gas together contributes 60% to those emissions. In the oil and gas sector, the emission takes place through extraction; processing and combustion. Human being to generate secondary energies like, Electricity and transportation (Foxon 2013) use energy or the hydrocarbons like coal; oil and gas. Therefore, with growing demand for the secondary energies, the emission contributes by oil and gas industry is continuously growing. Emitted gases disperse rapidly across the globe whether they are emitted in Asia; Europe, Americas or Africa. Moreover, due to the transition to low carbon economy by shifting away from fossil fuels towards less carbon intensive sources, the oil and gas industry has been facing difficulties. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change projected to reduce greenhouse gas emission by half from its level of 1990 annually. United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change meetings in 2015 held in Paris, focuses on finding solution to the impacts of global warming due to use of hydrocarbons. This paper will discuss the effects of UNFCCC decisions taken in Paris, on the policies of energy sector of United Kingdom.
UNFCCC meeting, Conference of Parties (2015) was held from 30th November to 12th December. It was the 21st session; and 196 countries attended it and negotiated upon a global agreement. The negotiated global agreement focused on the reduction of climate change. The agreement set a goal of limiting the global warming to less than 2 degreess Celsius compared to the pre-industrial levels (Unfccc.int 2016). It calls for reaching zero net manmade greenhouse gas emission to by second half of the 21st century. The objective of the 2015 UNFCCC was to achieve a control and universal agreement regarding climate from all countries over the world. The participated members agreed to reduce their carbon as fast as possible and committed to put their best effort to keep global warming well below 2 degreess Celsius and attaining warming level of 1.5 degree Celsius. This conference is a turning point in the global initiatives to contest with climate change. From the commitment of member nations, it has been displayed that importance of limiting global warming has been considered as a global problem.
The Outline of the Paris Agreement, 2015 can be outlined as follows:
Before this UNFCCC, almost every country urged to reduce greenhouse gas emission targeted by 2025 or 2030. This would avoid the worst impact on the climate change.
This is an ambitious target than targeting 2 degrees Celsius. It has said that countries should target to keep global warming at 1.5 degree Celsius that is more important for the low-lying coastal areas, as it will prohibit the sea-level rise.
The countries will be reviewed about their emission-cutting pledges at a five years interval. At every review the ambition or the targets will be strengthening. This will force the country to take immediate action to meet the target.
It has been decided in the conference that the emitted carbon dioxide should be withdrawn in order to balance between emission and sinks. This can be done by absorbing carbon dioxide through forestation. It targets to eliminate fossils fuel use and reducing gas that has been already emitted during the second half of this century, i.e. after 2050.
In this agreement, rich nation agreed to assist poor nations, so that they can adapt the impacts of climatic change and they can build a low-carbon economy.They have agreed upon giving $100 billion per year by 2020. The developed countries will also provide financial support to poor nations for permanent damage from climatic change.
The governments of the member nations agreed to monitor and confirm that the respective nation is doing what they have initiated. The rich nations have to abide more rigorous measures (World-nuclear.org, 2016).
The production and exploration of oil and gas industry of United Kingdom had a steep decline since 1999. The declined slowed in 2013 and after a long time, production of petroleum and other liquids increase in 2015. UK is the second largest liquids producer in Europe. Production by UK is small in the context of global market; hence it is net importer of petroleum and other liquids. This industry aims to achieve “no harm” levels by 2020. UK aims to reduce the emission of carbon dioxide in order to combat climate change. As compared to 2000, carbon dioxide emissions declined by 10% in 2007(Carbonbrief.org 2016).
The Paris agreement is crucial and it sets the world towards a very different energy system. It led to think the government and the policymakers differently. This agreement aims at phasing out the fossil fuels and expanding clean energy. The energy policy of future is likely to be focused on the innovation of low-carbon technology (Uyarra, Shapira and Harding 2016)
. The UK business will focus on taking benefit of emergent market of low-carbon products and services. After the successful deal, it has been focused on how UK will achieve the target of UNFCCC and what will be the impact of this deal on UK energy policy.
The agreements of climate change emphasize on carbon emission reduction through international approach. However, the policy measures to attain the objectives set by the global agreements are implemented at the national level. The new Paris Agreement efficiently reflects the Climate Change Act, 2008, of UK itself. However, the UNFCCC, 2015 set a long term target in order to ensure that the policies are steadily on track. The Climate Change Act has committed to reduce emission of greenhouse gas by 80% as compared to 1990 within 2050(The Guardian 2015). However, the government has forecasted that country is about to miss the carbon budget period for mid 2020s. Therefore, the deal like Paris agreement forces the British government to set tighter targets. It is expected that the committee on Climate Change will verify the implications of setting target of 1.5 degree Celsius on UK carbon budgets. It is possible that it might not have immediate effect but the Paris Agreement will keep our targets consistent. Since, the policy of the UK’s climate change committee is set up well before this agreement, the policy-makers only look after the consistency gap. However, many have said that Paris Agreement of 2015will put more pressure on government (Walt 2015).
The warmer world indicates a volatile weather in Britain along with other countries. The Paris Agreement reduces the instability and variability in weather in future. This in turn will reduce the floods or heat waves etc. The Paris agreement reinforces the British government’s own target that limits the climatic change. This indicates that the UN focuses to prevent the climate change that is dangerous. Forecasting the impact of climatic change is quite difficult but maintains the global warming to 1.5 degree Celsius rather 2 degrees Celsius will reduce the risks of irreversible breakdown of ice sheet of Greenland. The cut in the greenhouse gas emission will not prevent all consequences together. However, the policymakers will formulate the policy according to the effects of low emission. British science must be proud of the Paris agreement, as many institutions in this country study the climate change and play crucial role on developing scientific case, based on which policymakers now act. The scientists of Met Office (an institution of climate change study) applauded the UNFCCC, 2015 as it induces the politicians across the world to understand what science has told a long ago, about the risks of fossil fuel burning.
The United Kingdom budget 2016 focuses on well-being of the next generation. It has announced some key climate and energy announcement. The Carbon Reduction Commitment of this nation was abolished as it required pricing of every tonne of carbon emitted. This scheme was excessive complex and ineffective, as large firm compensated its emission by paying price but put less effort on reducing the emission of carbon. According to the report, Climate Change Levy, which is a tax on energy use, will be charged. Energy intensive industries will be protected from the higher rates (Yeo 2016). The 2016 budget offers packages for supporting oil and gas industry. The supplementary charge on the North Sea industry has been reduced to 10% in this year. To protect the Paris goal for net zero emissions, the government has taken few steps in UK law. The target set in the Paris Agreement is a long-term in nature. Therefore, the government has to review and change its policy on a short interval, along with developing strategy to meet the fourth and fifth carbon budget out to 2032. The government of UK is looking forward to establish ‘zero-carbon target’ that will put this country at forefront of the new brave low-carbon world. By setting net zero-carbon target, the UK government has indicated its seriousness about the low-carbon goal. This again reassures that the investors, which led to focus on making low-carbon transport and environment supporting infrastructure for the future (Energyfutureslab.wordpress.com 2016).
In order to promote clean low-carbon energy and to meet the targets of the Paris agreement, the government of United Kingdom emphasised on promotion of renewable energy. The energy policy of this nation also encourages “carbon captured and storage” equipped fossil fuel plants and nuclear power for alternate sources of energy. The target of UK is to derive 15% final energy demand from renewable by 2020. The UK formulates policy to develop cleaner and more secure energy network and policymakers have consulted to close coal fired power stations by 2025 (Gov.uk 2015). This nation aims to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases due to electricity by replacing the coal-fired stations with gas. UK is the first nation that delivers commitment stop using coal in any kind of energy generation process. In order to meet the target of the 21st UNFCCC, the policy of this country focuses on developing the energy efficiency. The current energy policy of UK aims to support investment in the infrastructure to meet the emission reduction goal on time and on budget. Efficiency in the energy sector reduces cost that advances the productivity and competitiveness.
Conclusion
In the above discussion, the paper has discussed the major decisions taken on the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Meetings, held on Paris in 2015. The main purpose of this paper was to critically analyse the impact of the decisions taken on Paris Agreement on energy policy of UK. It has been noticed that, the basic target of this agreement is to keep the level of global warming “well below” 2 degrees Celsius and targeting 1.5 degree Celsius. It importance of the climatic change has been understood by every nation and they committed to meet the target. The agreement focuses on reducing the greenhouse gas emission to constraint the global warming. The member nations have committed to reduce the carbon dioxide emission by 2025 or 2030. The analysis has found that UK has targeted to reduce greenhouse emission to limit the climatic change well before this meeting. It can be concluded from the above discussion; UK has modified its energy policy in order to meet the target that is no different from its own set of targets to limit consequences the global warming. The Paris agreement has strengthened the energy policy of this country.
References
Carbonbrief.org. 2016. Budget 2016: key climate and energy announcements. [online] Available at: https://eciu.net/assets/Reports/Paris-Booklet-ECIU06_booklet_v71.pdf [Accessed 21 Jul. 2016].
Energyfutureslab.wordpress.com. 2016. What leaving the EU means for UK energy policy. [online] Available at: https://energyfutureslab.wordpress.com/2016/06/22/what-leaving-the-eu-means-for-uk-energy-policy/ [Accessed 22 Jul. 2016].
Foxon, T.J., 2013. Transition pathways for a UK low carbon electricity future.Energy Policy, 52, pp.10-24.
Gov.uk. 2015. New direction for UK energy policy – Press releases – GOV.UK. [online] Available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-direction-for-uk-energy-policy [Accessed 21 Jul. 2016].
the Guardian. 2015. The Guardian view on UK energy policy after Paris: Amber Rudd must flick the trip switch | Editorial. [online] Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/dec/14/the-guardian-view-on-uk-energy-policy-after-paris-amber-rudd-must-flick-the-trip-switch [Accessed 21 Jul. 2016].
Unfccc.int. 2016.Paris Climate Change Conference – November 2015. [online] Available at: https://unfccc.int/meetings/paris_nov_2015/meeting/8926.php [Accessed 21 Jul. 2016].
Uyarra, E., Shapira, P. and Harding, A., 2016. Low carbon innovation and enterprise growth in the UK: Challenges of a place-blind policy mix.Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 103, pp.264-272.
Walt, V. 2015. Energy Companies Face Big Risks From Paris Climate Deal. [online] Fortune. Available at: https://fortune.com/2015/12/17/energy-companies-feel-the-burn-from-paris-climate-deal/ [Accessed 22 Jul. 2016].
World-nuclear.org. 2016. Policy Responses to Climate Change- World Nuclear Association. [online] Available at: https://www.world-nuclear.org/information-library/energy-and-the-environment/policy-responses-to-climate-change.aspx [Accessed 21 Jul. 2016].
Yeo, S. 2016. Budget 2016: key climate and energy announcements – Carbon Brief. [online] Carbon Brief. Available at: https://www.carbonbrief.org/budget-2016-key-climate-and-energy-announcements [Accessed 21 Jul. 2016].
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