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Business leaders call for emissions targets

A group of business chiefs has lobbied world leaders to set targets for tackling climate change and to establish a global carbon market.

Their blueprint for climate change was handed to Japanese Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe, ahead of ;the recent G8 summit in Toyako.

The coalition hopes its ideas will have an impact on UN meetings, which aim to produce new targets in a successor to the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012.

The group of 98 signatories - including British Airways chief executive Willie Walsh, BP chief executive Tony Hayward, BT chief executive Ian Livingston and chairman of HSBC Holdings, Stephen Green - contend that cutting emissions must carry economic advantages. Richer countries should commit to deeper and earlier emissions targets, and developing counties should be included in the post-Kyoto deal, they say. The group also call for a global carbon trading system, and for emission caps to be applied flexibly across industry sectors to preserve competitiveness.

Meanwhile the UK Government's Climate Change Bill is set to receive the Royal Assent and become law in the next few months, paving the way for a major shakeup in environmental reporting and target setting:

• Carbon dioxide emissions to be cut by 60% by 2050 and a 26 to 32% reduction by 2020
• A new system of legally binding five year “carbon budgets”, set at least 15 years ahead, to provide clarity on the UK’s pathway towards its key targets and increase the certainty that businesses and individuals need to invest in low-carbon technologies
• A new statutory body, the Committee on Climate Change, to provide independent expert advice and guidance to Government on achieving its targets and staying within its carbon budgets
• New powers to enable the Government to more easily implement policies to cut emissions
• A new system of annual open and transparent reporting to Parliament; The Committee on Climate Change will provide an independent progress report to which the Government must respond. This will ensure the Government is held to account every year on its progress towards each five year carbon budget and the 2020 and 2050 targets
• A requirement for Government to report at least every five yearson current and predicted impacts of climate change and on its proposals and policy for adapting to climate change.
  

To help companies keep ahead of future demands in this area, FIRA has developed the Furniture Footprinter, a comprehensive carbon and ecological reporting and measurement tool. See www.furniturefootprinter.com  for details, or call 01438 777700 for a demonstration or consultation. 

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