ClientEarth report: The UK Climate Change Act 2008 – Lessons for national climate laws

ClientEarth report: The UK Climate Change Act 2008 – Lessons for national climate laws

This ClientEarth report by Karla Hill is an independent review for Friends of the Earth and the European Climate Foundation. The report looks at the UK’s experience developing and implementing the Climate Change Act and examines lessons and key design issues for national legal frameworks on climate change. The core concepts in the UK framework (science-based legal targets, carbon budgets and accounting and the institutional arrangements) need to be translated into specific national situations to create effective and workable regimes that meet national political and legal needs.

This work was initiated as part of a project organised by Friends of the Earth, the European Climate Foundation and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office to develop a series of seminars on national climate legislation for legislators, policymakers and civil society in European capitals. The report draws on interviews with officials at the UK’s department of energy and climate change, the committee on climate change and Friends of the Earth, which have all played important roles in relation to the Climate Change Act.

Download the report here: http://www.clientearth.org/reports/climate-and-energy-lessons-from-the-climate-change-act.pdf

Watch the video: The Climate Change Act: working towards a low carbon future