EU states fail to deliver emission cuts

Questions were being asked about the effectiveness of the EU carbon trading schema, as both Germany and France confirmed that their industries would be allowed to increase their carbon dioxide (CO2) output between 2007-2012.

Each EU Government has until today to announce its CO2 emission targets under the EU's emission trading schema, which allows firms that emit less carbon their allocated permits to sell these to companies that emit high levels of CO2.

Labour's think-tank, the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR), argued that this proved the EU emission carbon trading schema should be controlled centrally and not by individual member states.

David Miliband, the UK Environment Secretary, confirmed that UK industry would be allowed to emit 238 million tons of carbon between 2007-2012, which the Secretary claimed was a cut of 8 million tons of CO2 per year.

The cuts amounts to a reduction of UK carbon emissions of just over 15% in the two decades to 2010, which is well short of Labour's key election promise to cut emissions with 20%.

Mr. Miliband said that the UK continued to show the way on tackling global warming despite not making the ambitious target set by the Labour Government.