UK ambitious on reducing carbon level

Britain is pressing for an ambitious result at the climate change negotiations in Copenhagen in December.

Chris Bryant, Parliamentary Undersecretary of State for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, was in Wellington yesterday for talks with the Government.

The United Kingdom has not only announced a target reduction of 80 per cent from 1990 levels in its emissions by 2050 but put it on the statute books, so that it has force in the event of judicial reviews of any individual decision the Government makes in this area, he says.

For 2020 the target is 34 per cent.

It is not conditional on what anyone else does, Bryant says. "I don't think there is any point in people looking to their left and their right [at other countries' commitments]. We are absolutely seized of the necessity of getting this right."

It was not for him to tell New Zealand what to do.

But the British business community had highlighted the opportunities and jobs that transition to a low-carbon economy could deliver.