Carbon budget set to 2027

02 June 2011

The Fourth Carbon Budget has been laid out by the Government. With each ‘budget’ lasting five years, and with the programme starting from 2008, this fourth budget extends the roadmap to 2027.

DECC (the Department of Energy and Climate Change) has produced an impact assessment which presents the evidence base underpinning the Government's decision on the level of the fourth budget. The Impact Assessment assesses the options against three different perspectives, which inform setting an efficient level that minimises costs to society; a long-term UK emissions pathway considering a least-cost pathway to 2050; consideration of an efficient level of UK emissions as part of a global effort to reduce emissions, and; a static perspective of feasible and cost-effective reductions in UK emissions over the fourth budget.

In order to create a base of evidence to inform the Government's decision on the fourth carbon budget, DECC commissioned a project, drawing on the MARKAL model of the UK energy system, to provide information on key trade-offs between resources, technologies and sectors, where total CO2 emissions are constrained. The outcomes of the project are an improved appreciation of the model across government, an updated model database including significantly revised power sector, and a set of scenarios based on the new database that can help to inform decisions regarding the 4th carbon budget period and further into the future.