Government hides carbon emissions with creative accounting

New government figures released today that suggest UK carbon emissions are down by 12 per cent are ‘pure fiction, aided by Enron-esque accounting’ say the World Development Movement.

The government has announced that UK carbon emissions have fallen by 12 per cent since 1990. But this figure has been manipulated to include carbon credits, and does not count emissions from aviation. According to the World Development Movement UK carbon emissions have only fallen by three per cent since 1990.

Benedict Southworth, director of the World Development Movement said: “Today’s figures have been manipulated to include supposed reductions that have taken place outside the UK. The government has wished away a significant chunk of carbon emissions from their calculations. If they are genuinely committed to tackling climate change, this kind of Enron-esque accountancy fiddle, simply cannot continue.”

The government is claiming that the UK’s carbon emissions have fallen, but in fact emissions have risen by three per cent since Labour came into power in 1997.

Benedict Southworth continued: “The government must stop cooking the books and start cutting carbon emissions in the UK, as well as encouraging cuts around the world, if they are not to be known as the biggest ‘greenwashers’ of all.”

The World Development Movement graph above based on DEFRA’s figures demonstrates the difference in the emissions reductions claimed by the government, and the actual emissions from the UK since 1990.

Stop Kingsnorth - No New Coal (from Indymedia)

Around 50 demonstrators protested against the proposed building of a new coalfired power station at Kingsnorth on the Medway estuary in north Kent, outside the offices of E.ON UK in Pall Mall on Friday afternoon (more may have arrived after I left early to go to another event.) The demo was initiated by socialist youth and students group Revolution, and LSE Green Party students, but supported by other organisations.

Medway Council have given their approval, but it has still to get the go-ahead from the government. It's a development that would seem to directly contradict their environmental polices, but that probably won't affect the decision.

As the Green Alliance have said: "If John Hutton allows construction of this power station to go ahead without doing so, he will chronically undermine the government's ambitions outlined in the climate bill that is passing through parliament. When passed, this will set legally binding targets for the reduction in CO2 emissions to 2020 and 2050. Set against the background of rising UK emissions the building of Kingsnorth as planned will set a very damaging precedent for future energy generation that will make these targets challenging or impossible."

See the original story on Indymedia including photographs from the event.

Stop Kingsnorth protest outside E.ON's offices in London

Stop Kingsnorth: latest news

Welcome to the Stop Kingsnorth: no new coal blog. This is intended to go alongside the www.stopkingsnorth.org website to provide a way for our roving campaigner to keep everyone up to date with the latest Kingsnorth and new coal developments.

To find out more about the World Development Movement's campaign on climate change see www.wdm.org.uk/climate

We will be posting images, news and photographs from the campaign.

Please comment on the posts: we also have a Stop Kingsnorth group on Facebook with a discussion area.