MPs say climate law should go further

By Peter Griffiths

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's plans to fight climate change through laws that set binding limits on greenhouse gas emissions do not go far enough, an influential group of MPs said on Friday.

In a report, they said failure to include the fast-growing aviation sector undermined the credibility of the proposed laws -- the first of their kind in the world.

"We consider this to be a serious weakness," said the report by a parliamentary committee set up to scrutinise the draft climate change laws.

The Department for Transport estimates that carbon dioxide emissions from UK aviation will more than double between 2000 and 2050, the report said.

Britain says it excludes aviation and shipping because there is no internationally agreed basis for allocating emissions from planes and ships travelling around the world. The government says taking "unilateral responsibility" would be irrational.

The draft bill, which should become law in 2008, aims to cut carbon dioxide emissions by at least 60 percent from their 1990 level by 2050 -- nearly 10 times what has been achieved so far.

But the MPs warned that even tougher targets may be needed in the future and urged the government to leave the door open for new goals.

"Climate science suggests that this figure may not be adequate to prevent global temperatures rising above dangerous levels," they said.