Monbiot: The UK is making it a legal duty to maximise greenhouse gas emissions

[Chris Degnen]

This 'contradiction' could possibly reconcile if the UK's oil depletion scenario plays out.

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/georgemonbiot/2014/jun/26/uk-legal-duty-maximise-greenhouse-gas-emissions

After explaining the results of Wood's review, Kramer revealed that the government had accepted his recommendations in full. Then she dropped her bombshell. The government now plans

"to introduce measures in the bill to put the principle of maximising economic recovery of petroleum in the UK into statute."

Into statute. Maximising the production of crude oil will, if the bill is passed, become a legal requirement.

So the government, which has a statutory duty under the Climate Change Act 2008 to minimise the UK's greenhouse gas emissions, will have a statutory duty, under the Infrastructure Act 2015, to maximise them.