Bill sets 60 per cent carbon cut by 2050

The government's climate change bill, which aims to cut carbon emissions by 60 per cent by 2050, has a higher target than the EU of a 20 per cent cut by 2020 (the bill also sets an interim target of reducing emissions by between 26 per cent and 32 per cent by 2020).Tony Blair said: "This is a revolutionary step in confronting the threat of climate change. It sets an example to the rest of the world but, as important as anything else, it listens and responds to the strong desire on the part of the British people to take the lead and keep it."But it isn't enough, critics have said. Opposition parties and some Labour MPs have said the target should be 80 per cent or more.Sian Berry, principal speaker for the Green Party, said: "A target of 60 per cent by 2050 is not nearly enough - we need to achieve 90 per cent cuts by this date. Scientists say that anything less makes it probable that global temperatures will rise by more than 2oC, which will have disastrous consequences."See What's so bad about carbon? Chancellor Gordon Brown said the bill would mean chancellors would manage "carbon budgets" like financial budgets but they would be every five years. Environment Secretary David Miliband said there was no argument for them to be annual."Changing your policy on the basis of one year's weather isn't a sensible way of doing things," he told the BBC. "We think it's right that every five years we set carbon budgets in legislation, that we give business confidence about a 15-year period ahead so that we can really invest for the future. Instead, we need a framework of legislation which gives real confidence to business and to individuals about the way in which our country's going to change to meet the climate change challenge." Tory shadow Environment Secretary Peter Ainsworth said: "To be truly effective, any bill should have three elements: annual emission reduction targets; an independent body to set as well as monitor these targets; and an annual carbon budget report from the Secretary of State. We've got to stop having a system whereby targets are set 10 years in advance, ignored up until year eight, and then are quietly dropped in year nine." Liberal Democrat leader Menzies Campbell said: "We welcome the introduction of the draft climate change bill as far as it goes. Yet this Labour government has presided over a 3 per cent rise in carbon dioxide emissions while green taxes have fallen as a percentage of GDP."The government has formed a new Committee on Climate Change.