Date published: 2009/05/01
The BBC says:
UK government departments are not on course to meet their own targets for reducing carbon emissions, according to the Sustainable Development Commission.
The government's environmental watchdog warned that more needed to be done if emissions were to be cut by 12.5% from 1999-2000 levels by 2011-12.
In an assessment, it called on the government estate to "lead by example".
...
It added that a £4bn investment in wind and solar energy generation on the government estate would "immediately cut emissions from offices by 68%".
The government could make a significant reduction in its own carbon emissions by getting rid of all the useless quangos, like the Sustainable Development Commission, which contribute nothing to the nation. And the SDC (and the BBC) is wrong that "a £4bn investment in wind and solar energy generation on the government estate would 'immediately cut emissions from offices by 68%'". It would immediately represent a huge increase in emissions, because all that kit needs to be built and installed, and that represents a lot of fossil fuels being burnt. Afterwards, ongoing emissions would (hopefully) be cut, and in the (very) long run total emissions might actually be reduced, if the chosen technology happened to be appropriate (and solar energy in particular is dubious in Britain, and wind energy is dubious in many parts of Britain).
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