Section 2: Amendment of 2050 target or baseline year
30.Subsection (1) allows the Secretary of State, by order, to amend the 2050 target and to amend the baseline year.
31.Subsection (2) sets out the circumstances in which the Secretary of State can amend the 2050 target:
paragraph (a) allows an amendment if there have been significant developments in scientific knowledge about climate change, in European Community law or policy or in international law or policy. For example, this power might be used in the event of a new international treaty on climate change;
paragraph (b) allows an amendment if a change is made to the range of greenhouse gases covered by the target (see section 24) or if emissions from international aviation or international shipping are added to the target (see section 30).
32.Subsection (3) provides more detail on the meaning of “developments in scientific knowledge about climate change”. The first time the Secretary of State amends the 2050 target, he will be able to rely only on scientific developments occurring after Royal Assent. But when making any subsequent amendment, the Secretary of State will be able to take into account scientific developments only since the target was last changed.
33.Subsection (4) provides that the baseline year can be amended only if there have been significant developments in European Community or international law or policy which make an amendment appropriate.
34.Subsections (5) and (6) provide that an order amending the target is to be made by statutory instrument subject to the affirmative resolution procedure (that is, a draft of the order must be approved by both Houses of Parliament). An order that changes the baseline year may also amend other references in the Act to “the 1990 baseline”.
35.See also section 33, which provides that the Committee on Climate Change must, not later than 1st December 2008, provide advice on a review the level of the 2050 target.