Reprieve: UK delays implementing fresh carbon penalties until 2016

THE British government will delay implementing new measures to penalise aviation and shipping for carbon emissions until 2016, the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) has announced.

Climate Change Minister Edward Davey said the nation could wait until there was more clarity about how the international community would approach the issue after the European Commission suspended its plans to levy carbon taxes on aviation, reported Ship & Bunker.

"Given the uncertainty of what is happening at the EU and global level managing aviation emissions, we think it sensible to defer our decision on the inclusion of aviation and shipping emission in the UK's carbon budgets," Mr Davey said.

If the greenhouse gas emissions from aviation and shipping had been included in total targets, it would have meant imposing greater costs on other sectors, including industry and electric power generation.

Nominally independent, but state-funded Committee on Climate Change's (CCC) chief executive David Kennedy called the decision "sensible" because the delay "confirms that aviation and shipping emissions are included ".

But Keith Allott, head of climate change at the UK branch of the World Wildlife Federation, slammed the decision, calling it "dither and delay".