| Title |
The continuing failure of UK climate change mitigation policy |
| ID_Doc |
63440 |
| Authors |
Somerville, P |
| Title |
The continuing failure of UK climate change mitigation policy |
| Year |
2021 |
| Published |
Critical Social Policy, 41, 4 |
| DOI |
10.1177/0261018320961762 |
| Abstract |
Failure to take climate change seriously enough has resulted in the world now facing a climate emergency, with rising global temperatures, melting polar ice caps, increasingly frequent and severe storms, floods and droughts, and rising sea levels. Despite being the first country in the world to set statutory carbon emissions reduction targets (in the Climate Change Act 2008), the UK government since 2012 has fallen increasingly behind, even by its own standards. This paper details what this has meant in terms of specific policies and identifies some of the reasons for this policy failure: in particular, a negative attitude towards regulation and a return to a reliance on market forces, plus an overriding concern to continue with 'business as usual', in terms of support for fossil-fuel industries and ever-increasing energy demand and supply. Ironically, this has resulted in a situation where radical solutions seem even more necessary and more urgent. |
| Author Keywords |
decarbonisation; global emergency; new green deal |
| Index Keywords |
Index Keywords |
| Document Type |
Other |
| Open Access |
Open Access |
| Source |
Social Science Citation Index (SSCI) |
| EID |
WOS:000578765900001 |
| WoS Category |
Social Issues; Social Sciences, Interdisciplinary |
| Research Area |
Social Issues; Social Sciences - Other Topics |
| PDF |
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0261018320961762
|