On climate change goals, UK's a 'small yapping dog'

The UK’s climate change goals fall far short of what’s needed to avert dangerous levels of warming, according to the director of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research.

The Guardian reported this week that Tydall director Kevin Anderson warns that the Government’s proposed carbon cuts, if enacted globally, would offer only a 50-50 chance of avoiding a temperature increase of 2 degrees C or more — regarded as the threshold for catastrophic climate change impacts.

Whilst addressing MPs on the Environmental Audit Committee, Anderson also noted that the two agencies most focussed on climate change — Decc and Defra — lacked the muscle needed to enact stronger legislation. Compared to departments such as business, he said, the climate-centred agencies were akin to small yapping dogs.