The Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs announced the terms of reference for the review of the UK climate change programme (CCP) on 15 September 2004. These stated that the Government would aim to publish a revised programme in the first half of 2005. I have today announced, through a press notice, that Ministers have agreed to postpone the publication of the revised programme to allow more time for the completion of the appraisal of new policy options. The programme will now be published before the end of the year. This will enable us to produce a programme to put us back on track to achieving the domestic goal of reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 20 per cent. by 2010 and ensure that we can achieve real progress by 2020 towards the long-term goal to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by some 60 per cent. by about 2050.

In addition, I am pleased to say that the extended timetable will allow us to take full account of the outcome of a number of other pieces of ongoing work including the energy efficiency innovation review—important as energy efficiency, both in the domestic and business sectors, may be expected to contribute significantly to future emission reductions. It will also give us more time to take forward the commitments in the 2005 Budget, including how we might support the development of carbon capture and storage, and the commitment in the manifesto to explore the scope for the further use of economic instruments and other measures to promote lower vehicle emissions.

The revised timetable will also fit more closely with the timetable for developing phase II of the EU emissions trading scheme. It will enable us to take into greater consideration the level of the cap for the second phase of the EU ETS which is occurring in parallel to the CCP review.