British leaders pledge climate change push, curb on coal plants

The bitter political division in Australia over climate change has come under fire after Britain's three main parties made an extraordinary joint commitment to cut greenhouse gas emissions, including ending power generation from high-emitting coal plants.

Announced in a statement on Saturday, the agreement between the Conservatives, Labour and Liberal Democrats did not give a time frame for phasing out plants unless they have emissions capturing technology. But campaigners welcomed the cross-party announcement and said Britain was the first major economy to make such an explicit promise.

Prime Minister David Cameron, Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg and Opposition Leader Ed Miliband said that acting on climate change was "an opportunity for the UK to grow a stronger economy, which is more efficient and more resilient to the risks ahead".

The pledge comes ahead of a national election in Britain in May, and a day after almost 200 nations agreed a draft text for a global climate deal expected in Paris at the end of the year. The British politicians said they would push for an internationally binding agreement in Paris that limits temperature rises to 2 degrees.

The statement follows the US and China last year reaching a climate deal that included new targets for beyond 2020 and was widely applauded for signalling both countries were serious in tackling the issue, though US President Barack Obama's pledge did not receive support from 

Republican leaders.


Climate Institute chief executive John Connor said Britain's "historic" stance would encourage cleaner energy by reducing investment risk. "It's a stark contrast to the situation in Australia, where political divisions have caused severe damage to the investment environment for climate and clean energy, leaving us sliding backward as the rest of the world charges ahead."

Australia became the first country to abandon a carbon price after the Coalition met its promise to repeal and replace it with its "direct action" policy, under which some businesses will be paid to cut emissions. Despite sharing a target of a 5 per cent cut by 2020, the government and opposition remain at loggerheads over how to reduce emissions.

A report by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change last year said that fossil fuel generation without carbon capture and storage would have to be "phased out almost entirely by 2100" to reach the 2-degree goal.

Britain has commissioned engineering studies for two carbon capture and storage projects that aim to store emissions underground. It has a legally binding target to cut its emissions by 80 per cent on 1990 levels by 2050 and has embarked on electricity market reforms aimed at spurring investment in low emissions technology. 

with Reuters