英国宣布将温室气体排放减少68％

    中国石化新闻网讯 据CNBC网站12月4日消息：根据近日宣布的计划，英国政府的目标是到2030年在1990年的水平上至少减排68%。

    减少温室气体排放的新目标是在12月12日由英国共同主办的气候峰会之前提出的。

    根据2015年《巴黎气候变化协定》，该目标被称为国家自主贡献NDC。NDC是该协议的组成部分，该协议旨在将全球变暖保持在比工业化前水平远低于2摄氏度，并努力将气温上升限制在1.5摄氏度以内。

    此前，英国的目标是NDC为53%。但国际航空和航运不包括在目标之内。

    对于政府的新目标，绿色和平组织英国执行董事约翰·索文说：“鉴于气候危机的紧迫性和零碳解决方案的迅速发展，未来10年的目标可能会进一步提高。政府现在必须加大行动力度，减少英国家庭、道路、农场和能源的排放。”

    此外，气候联盟大会(一个致力于应对气候变化的组织)第26次会议联合主任埃德·马修表示:“英国已设定2030年目标，这一雄心勃勃的目标符合其到2050年实现净零排放的法律义务。”

    冯娟 摘译自 CNBC

    原文如下：

    UK announces ‘ambitious’ plan to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 68%

    The U.K. government will target an emissions cut of at least 68% by the year 2030, compared to 1990 levels, under plans announced Thursday.

    The new goal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions comes before a Climate Ambition Summit on Dec. 12 which the U.K. will co-host.

    In a statement, the U.K.’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson described the new target as “ambitious,” while Business and Energy Secretary Alok Sharma said it reflected “the urgency and scale of the challenge our planet faces.”

    The target is known as a Nationally Determined Contribution, or NDC, under 2015′s Paris Agreement on climate change. NDCs are an integral part of the agreement, which aims to keep global warming “well below” 2 degrees Celsius (35.6 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels, and “pursue efforts” to limit the temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

    Previously, the U.K. had aimed for an NDC of 53%. International aviation and shipping are not included in the target.

    Among those reacting to the government’s new target was John Sauven, Greenpeace UK’s executive director. “The Prime Minister is right to have set one of the most ambitious climate targets in the world,” he said.

    “But given the urgency of the climate crisis and the rapid advances in zero carbon solutions, ambition can be pushed even higher over the next decade,” he added. “The government must now increase the action needed to cut emissions from our homes, roads, farms and power sources in the UK.”

    This week’s announcement comes as the U.K. gears up to host the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland next year. Originally planned for 2020, the conference was postponed until November 2021 because of the coronavirus pandemic.

    Martin Harper, conservation director at the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, welcomed the new target, adding that it would “enhance the UK’s leadership credentials in the run up (to) the crucial climate talks next year.”

    “But climate change science suggests we need to go further and faster, in particular by investing in protecting and restoring habitats such as our peatlands which are so important for locking up carbon,” he added.

    Elsewhere, Ed Matthew, COP26 co-director for The Climate Coalition, a group focused on tackling climate change, said: “It is notable that the UK has set a 2030 target which is a step up in ambition and in line with its legal duty to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050.”

    Matthew went on to describe this as “important progress but not sufficient.”

    “A more ambitious cut is both feasible and necessary to keep us safe and reflect our massive historic carbon emissions,” he added. “We must remember too that the climate will not respond to targets, it will respond to carbon cuts. It is action that counts.”