§ Mr. Charles KennedyTo ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what action he intends to take to reduce carbon emissions from(a) power generation and (b) road traffic in order to meet the targets agreed by the Government at Kyoto. [38562]
§ Mr. MacdonaldThe UK share of the European Union's target of 8 per cent. arising from Kyoto will be agreed in discussion with Member States. This will place an obligation on the UK as a whole to cut a basket of 6 greenhouse gas emissions. The UK provisional target, reached in March 1997 and based on a 3-gas basket, stands at 10 per cent. We indicated before Kyoto that we were prepared to consider doing more than this but we would not do so simply to enable others to do less. We have a separate domestic aim of a 20 per cent. cut in CO2 emissions.
585WThe Government plan to issue a consultation paper in the summer. This will discuss policy options for meeting the UK's legally binding target. It will also discuss measures which would move beyond that towards our 20 per cent. CO2 aim.
The contribution that might be made by the power generation and road transport sectors is being considered as part of the various wider reviews in these areas. I would not want to pre-judge the outcome of these reviews.