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Thousands of wind turbines, 1.7 million electric cars and more nuclear power stations are needed to slash carbon emissions at a quicker rate, experts have warned.
The first annual report by the Government’s climate change committee identified a series of radical measures required to cut emissions from homes, transport and electricity generation in the UK.
Large-scale strategies to deliver insulation and new energy efficient boilers to millions of homes, as well as several new nuclear power stations, “clean coal” plants and thousands of wind turbines, are needed to create a “step change” in the rate of reducing emissions and ensure the country meets its climate commitments.
The committee, publishing its first progress report on efforts to reduce greenhouse gases in the UK, also said the Government needed to get 1.7 million electric cars on the road by 2020, and to consider road pricing as part of efforts to tackle rising emissions from transport.
In the past five years, greenhouse gas emissions have been falling at a rate of less than 1 per cent a year.
In order to meet reductions of up to 3 per cent a year, there needs to be “massive improvement” on current rates, the committee’s chef executive David Kennedy warned.
The report said that efforts to cut emissions from homes and buildings would require a national programme – similar to the strategy which saw the country switch to natural gas in the 1970s – of energy efficiency measures delivered on a street-by-street basis.
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