When is zero not zero? In the run-up to this October’s crucial COP 26 conference, the UK government has been talking up its green credentials. In 2019, the UK became the first major economy to make a legal commitment to Net Zero – achieving a balance by 2050 between the carbon emitted into the atmosphere, and the carbon removed from it – and this has been a central point in its claims to global climate leadership ever since. But there’s a problem. The Net Zero target only covers emissions produced within the national borders of the UK. And almost half of the UK’s consumption emissions – emissions associated with the goods and products we consume - are released outside the UK in the production of goods that we import. This offshoring of carbon emissions is a trend caused by the UK’s shift away from being a 12 traidcraftshop.co.uk
manufacturing economy. Whereas, in the past, the UK produced most of the goods that it needed within its borders, it increasingly sources these from other countries. What is critically needed then is a new UK target, designed to cut offshored emissions. This target would operate alongside the existing Net Zero target and plug the current gap in its effectiveness, spurring the UK government on to work closely with other countries, to help reduce the environmental impact of the products destined for our shores. Because ultimately it is through international collaboration rather than outsourcing and then washing our hands of carbon emissions that we will make real progress in tackling the climate crisis.
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