United Kingdom and its state of Carbon Emissions

The United Kingdom is one of the most advanced and industrialized countries in the world. The country has been the pioneer in several industrial processes and at one point of time was the trading superpower in the world. The British Empire had trading relations with almost all parts of the world which led to its immense growth of wealth and influence around the world. By the time World War II broke out, the country had become one of the most industrialized nations in Europe. The world war provided a renewed impetus to the industrial development in the country as it did to most of the advanced nations then. The unrestricted and extensive uses of fuel and energy resources for the war was soon replicated by the same attitude being followed for the rapid industrial development of the war-ravaged Europe after WWII.

Industrial development in Europe has seen such a pace in the past one hundred years that it has never been seen before in its history. The effort, though, made the continent one of the most advanced in its state of human development but the true cost of that development was only visible towards the second half of the century. The carbon footprint of the United Kingdom and most of the other European Union countries are amongst the highest in the world. Even the currently developing countries are emitting less carbon dioxide than many of the developed countries of the world and it is also highly likely that in their future course of development they will not emit the level of carbon as had been done by the European nations.

Severe climatic conditions have started to affect the European continent in the past few decades as have never been experienced. There have been severe heat waves in the United Kingdom as have never been seen before and so have there been floods that have led to serious loss of property and goods. Air pollution is being held responsible today for the majority of the respiratory illnesses in the country these days and so have other forms of pollution been held responsible for different types of ailments. The warnings given out by climate scientists and environmentalists are also severe; they are categorical that the average temperature of the world is increasing significantly which will eventually lead to the melting of Icecaps in the polar regions. The melting of polar ice caps will lead to the rise of water levels in the world putting in danger the coastal areas of the world and put the survival in doom of island countries like Japan and the United Kingdom.

Understanding this danger, the United Kingdom and the entire European Union have started to take the issue of climate change very seriously. While the United Kingdom was a part of the European Union, it had been part of several environmental regulations being brought about by the European Union to bring the environmental degradation effects under control. Among the most important regulations that have been brought in are the individual country requirements that have now been put to individual nations to reduce the carbon footprints in their countries. On the corporate sector side, regulations have been put in the automobile sector to increasingly produce vehicles with low carbon emissions and to eventually move out of Internal combustion technology for transportation and stop usage of petroleum consuming machines altogether. More and more emphasis is now being put on electric vehicles with power sourced from renewable resources of energy.

Utility companies in the United Kingdom and elsewhere in the European Union are also being asked to increasingly source their energy requirements from renewable resources and shun the use of coal and crude and gas for energy production. The steel sector, cement sector and thermal energy sector, which use significant amounts of coal are now being asked to substitute or significantly reduce their use of coal or attract significant penalties. The Airline industry is also not being spared. The industry is the one that emits carbon dioxide and other derivatives greenhouses gases in the upper reaches of the atmosphere are now facing regulations to improve their performances on this front. Lastly and most importantly the coal and oil companies in the continent are also facing a lot of discontent from non-governmental and government departments to reduce their carbon footprint as well.

Not only in terms of regulations, the United Kingdom, European Union as well as several other countries in the continent are also providing financial incentives to budding renewable energy ventures so that a conductive ecosystem is developed in the continent for the renewable energy business to flourish in the continent. Most importantly, significant investments are taking place in solar power plants and wind energy plants in the continent. Almost all countries are providing tariff incentives to such companies as well as imposing requirements on utility companies to compulsory purchase power from these companies.

Several large companies have also pitched in to support these initiatives and have launched their own initiatives to fund and support renewable energy ventures in the continent. J Sainsbury Plc, the largest supermarket operators in the United Kingdom, has announced this month that it has pledged £1 billion in spending to make itself carbon neutral by 2040. The company had been working on this front for a while and till now has been able to reduce nearly thirty-five per cent of its carbon emissions working tirelessly for fifteen years. BP, the largest oil and gas company in the United Kingdom, has also pledged to make itself carbon neutral by 2050. The CEO of the company, Bernard Looney, has announced that his company would invest more in low carbon businesses and lower its exposure to oil and gas businesses. BP at this time emits nearly 400 million tons of carbon dioxide per year from its mostly from its oil and gas business verticals. Glencore Plc, another LSE listed energy company with Swiss origins, has also pledged to reduce its carbon footprint by at least 30 per cent by the year 2035 without setting any targets or deadlines.