Combating climate change in the UK: Challenges and obstacles

Political Quarterly

Volumn 79, Issue 2, 2008, Pages 194-205

  Carter, Neil ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF YORK   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

Climate change; Environmental governance; Environmental policy; Environmental politics; Labour government

Indexed keywords

EID: 44449139557     PISSN: 00323179     EISSN: 1467923X     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-923X.2008.00913.x     Document Type: Article

References (17)

1. The author would like to thank Friends of the Earth for funding the research for this article (which is partly based on 16 elite interviews with key actors in government, the environment lobby and the scientific community) and Iain McLean for his comments on earlier drafts.
2. The Observer, 25 March 2007, Review: p. 24.
3. Department for the Environment, Farming and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), UK Greenhouse Gas Emissions: 1990-2006s. Available online at: http://www.defra.gov. uk/environment/statistics/globatmos/download/xls/ghg_annex_a_20080131.xls
4. Anthony Downs, 'Up and down with ecology: The "issue attention cycle" ', Public Interest, vol. 28, 1972.
5. A more detailed evaluation of the climate change programme can be found in Neil Carter and David Ockwell, New Labour, New Environment? An Analysis of the Labour Government's Policy on Climate Change and Biodiversity Loss, Centre for Ecology Law and Politics, University of York, 2007. Available online at: http://www.york.ac.uk/res/celp/webpages/projects/foe/introduction.htm
6. EAC, Pre-Budget 2006 and the Stern Review, Fourth Report, Session 2006-07, HC 227, paras. 69, 78.
7. DEFRA, UKfigures down but 'much must be done': Benn, news release 28/08,31 January 2008. Available online at: http://www.defra.gov.uk/news/2008/ 080131c.htm
8. See Mark Maslin, Patrick Austin, Alex Dickson, John Murlis, Matthew Owen and Virginia Panizzo, Audit of UK Greenhouse Gas Emissions to 2020: Will Current Government Policies Achieve any Significant Reductions?, UCL Environment Institute, Report No.2007:01, p. 2.
9. Sustainable Development Commission (SDC), UK Climate Change Programme: A Policy Audit, London, 2003, p. 7.
10. Royal Commission for Environmental Pollution (RCEP), Energy: The Changing Climate, 22nd report, Cm 4794, London, The Stationery Office, 2000, p. 83.
11. RCEP p. 80. Indeed, by 2004 the government had acknowledged that the UK would not meet the 2010 target
12. (see ENDS Report 2004: no. 359, p. 48. Available online at: http://www.endsreport.com/index.cfm?action=report.issue&IssueNo=359).
13. SDC, Climate Change: The UK Programme, 2006: SDC Response, London, 2006, paras 20, 22.
14. Ipsos-MORI, The Most Important Issues Facing Britain Today, 2007. Available online at: http://www.ipsos-mori.com/polls/trends/issues.shtml
15. Paul Whiteley, Marianne Stewart, David Sanders and Harold Clarke, 'The issue agenda and voting in 2005', in Pippa Norris and Christopher Wlezien, eds, Britain Votes 2005, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2005, p. 154.
16. Michael Jacobs Environmental Modernisation: The New Labour Agenda, London, Fabian Society, 1999, p. 9.
17. Green Alliance, A Green Living Initiative: Engaging Households to Achieve Environmental Goals, London, Policy Studies Institute/GreenAlliance, 2006, p. 3.