Government pledges to cut carbon emissions by 80% by 2050

The Guardian reports:

The government today committed the UK to cutting greenhouse-gas emissions by 80% by the middle of the century in a bid to tackle climate change.

In a move that was widely welcomed by environmental campaigners, Ed Miliband, the new energy and climate change secretary, said that the current 60% target would be replaced by the higher goal in the climate change bill.
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Sarah Butler-Sloss, the Executive Chair of the Ashden Awards responds:

It is commendable that yesterday the UK government committed to cutting greenhouse-gas emissions by 80% by 2050 and at the same time supported an amendment, much called for by our Award winning energy practitioners, the creation of 'feed in tariffs'. By allowing small scale electricity producers, such as homes and businesses with solar panels or wind turbines, to sell electricity back to the national grid, we will not only make a substantial contribution to tackling climate change but also, by providing consistency to a developing market, have the potential to create many hundreds of new green jobs in the UK. We hope the government will also implement similar measures that provide incentives for the greater use of local sustainable heating schemes (such as ground source heat pumps, biomass boilers and solar water heaters). Together these measures, supported by a real drive on energy efficiency, would really kick start a thriving green economy.