By Elishya Perera
LONDON (CU)_The United Kingdom is halfway to slashing its greenhouse gas emissions to net zero after the pandemic led to a record annual fall in pollution, an analysis has found. According the assessment conducted by UK-based climate and energy website Carbon Brief, greenhouse gases in the country fell by about 11 per cent in 2020, the biggest annual fall in at least 3 decades.
This means that the European nation has seen a 51 per cent fall in emissions since 1990, which is the benchmark year used to measure reduction in greenhouse gases under laws to tackle climate change.
The law requires the United Kingdom to slash its greenhouse gases to net zero by 2050, and in order to achieve this target the country is required to reduce emissions as much as possible, while the remaining pollution should be set off by taking steps such as planting trees.
In the 60-year period starting 1990, last year marked the halfway point to achieve net zero, and according to Carbon Brief’s analysis, emissions in 2020 were down more than half to 389 million tonnes, from nearly 800 million tonnes of in 1990.
The pandemic was the driving force of last year’s fall, which helped push UK emission cuts past the halfway point, as border closures and stay-at-home measures particularly reduced the use of fossil fuels, while warmer weather cut the demand for heating, the analysis revealed.
Although this significant drop in emissions last year is a great accomplishment, however, these figures are likely to increase as the economy recovers, particularly with the revival in areas such as transport and manufacturing sectors.
On the other hand, although there has been a significant rise in electric vehicle sales, accounting for more than 10 per cent of new cars, they only make up 1 per cent of the cars on the road, which explains the microscopic drop in emissions in the transport sector in the 30 years since 1990.
However, on the other hand, there has been significant transformation in UK’s power sector, with more power being generated from solar, wind, biomass and hydro than fossil fuels last year, compared to two-thirds of electricity being produced from coal, 10 per cent from oil and just 2 per cent from renewables back in 1990.
Greenhouse gas emissions in the United Kingdom are currently as low as they were in 1853, making the country lower than that of each person in the United States or China, although still remains three times that of India.
However, non-governmental environmental organisation Greenpeace warned that the findings were not a cause for celebrations as the United Kingdom is still a long way from achieving net zero emissions in 2050.
“Make no mistake, the scale of necessary future emission cuts are far greater than anything that has been managed during the pandemic,” the Organisation’s UK’s head of climate Kate Blagojevic said.
“We need much more Government funding, policies and political will to cut emissions from our homes, cars, industry and agriculture if we are to meet our climate targets once normal life resumes.”
