UK: Ministers ordered to assess climate cost of all decisions

Government says new ‘carbon price’ will favour eco-friendly policy choices

Coal-fired power stations, airport expansions and new road schemes could all be put on hold following a decision by Gordon Brown that ministers must in future take account of the true economic cost of climate change damage.

Ministers have been instructed to factor into their calculations a notional “carbon price” when making all policy and investment decisions covering transport, construction, housing, planning and energy.


That price – which will increase annually – is intended to frame all day-to-day policy and investment decisions for the next 30 years.

As a result carbon-free or clean technologies, including nuclear power, have been given a significant boost as they will now become relatively less expensive than polluting technologies.

The “shadow price for carbon”, representing the cost to society of the environmental damage, has already been agreed for every year up to 2050 by government economists. It will be set at