A government target to cut CO2 emissions by 2010 may be lowered from
20% to 18% in a review of its climate policy, the BBC understands.
But Environment Secretary Margaret Beckett has said Labour would "not
abandon" the target it first set before coming to office in 1997.
The BBC's Sarah Mukherjee added Defra was privately admitting the review would not provide radical solutions.
They say the emphasis will be on individuals saving energy in the home.
UK emissions of greenhouse gases
The government is releasing its climate policy review, aimed at getting
carbon dioxide emission reductions back on track, on Tuesday where it
is expected to acknowledge Britain will fail to meet its target.
But the new target is not likely to be as low as some had feared.
Emissions did reduce significantly in the UK for several years, but
have risen recently and now stand only 5.6% below 1990 levels.
Campaigners have said it is not clear how the 20% target could be achieved without new policies on transport and housing.
Meeting this target would mean cutting emissions by 15% in four years.
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, has warned that unless
attitudes change coercive action may be needed to force people to
reduce their production of greenhouse gases.
"We have to contemplate these very unwelcome possibilities if we want
the global economy not to collapse and millions, billions, of people
not to die," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.
The review process began in 2004 and has been delayed, partly by internal wrangling over targets for industry.
Mrs Beckett said at the weekend that the government would not forsake the target it originally set.
Policy gap
"We are not abandoning our 20%; we do believe it is something we can achieve," she said.
But Tony Grayling, associate director of the Institute for Public
Policy Research, said: "The measures [to be announced on Tuesday] will
not be enough to meet the government's 2010 emissions target."
The main policy tool for reducing emissions is the European Union's
Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS), which caps greenhouse gas production
from energy-intensive industries and allows companies to buy and sell
emissions permits with each other.
The first phase of the scheme is up and running, and European
governments are now preparing national caps for the second phase, to
run 2008-2012.
Within government, reports suggest, there is disagreement over what
figure the UK should set for its national cap, with the Department for
Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) arguing for annual
emissions reductions of about eight million tonnes of carbon and the
Department for Trade and Industry (DTI) backing a much lower target of
three million tonnes.
Some in government are concerned that mandating high cuts could leave
British firms at a competitive disadvantage if other European countries
then set softer targets.
The situation was complicated late last year by the establishment of a
governmental energy review, which will cover some of the same issues as
the climate change review.
The BBC News website understands the climate change report is likely to
set a range for the national cap of three to eight million tonnes.
The Green Alliance, an environmental lobby group, has calculated that
an annual cut of at least nine million tonnes is necessary for meeting
the 2010 target.
