British Shell Game on Carbon Emissions

According to documents leaked to The Guardian, the British government has been actively trying to undermine the European Union's proposals to drastically reduce carbon emissions in order to combat climate change. The UK wants to be able to count more imported carbon credits in order to meet pollution reduction targets. The Guardian reports that "The government's own calculations show the proposed change would allow Europe to emit an extra billion tonnes of CO2 from 2013-2020." The British government's efforts would raise the amount of carbon emissions "paid for" with buying credits from the developing world from about a quarter of the total to nearly half. Environmentalists are furious. Caroline Lucas, MEP and leader of the Green party, said, "The British government is trying to buy its way out of climate change targets using unreliable credits from abroad. It shows how much of the political talk on climate is empty rhetoric, when you have the UK talking up the need for action on one hand, and carrying out this kind of irresponsible climate vandalism on the other."