In its much-anticipated plans forenergy policy over the next 50 years,the United Kingdom has set an am-bitious new goal of cutting CO2emissions by 60% by 2050. In fact,Prime Minister Tony Blair says theEuropean Union should spearheada worldwide 60% reduction as partof a new international consensus totackle climate change. For its part,

the British government plans toreach this target by expanding re-newable energy and energy efficien-cy programs, but it has ruled outnew nuclear power plants for now.

Speaking at a United NationsSustainable Development Commis-sion conference in February, Blairset out the case for a worldwide60% reduction. Calling climatechange “unquestionably the mosturgent environmental challenge”,he said that the international KyotoProtocol was not radical enough. Hestressed that technological develop-ment could help achieve low-car-bon economies without causingeconomic damage, as feared bythe U.S. government. The UnitedKingdom’s economy has grown bynearly 17%, and emissions have

U.K. targets a 60% cut in CO2

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Warming could coolglobal marketsGlobal warming will significantly im-pact financial markets as investorsrevalue companies based on theirexposure to climate change risk,according to a survey of the 500largest global companies by theU.K.-based Carbon Disclosure Pro-ject (CDP), a collaboration of 35major institutional investors. Climatechange would affect many sectors,including financial services andtelecommunications, predicts thereport, Carbon Finance and theGlobal Equity Market. The shareprice of heavy carbon emitterscould fall by 40%, and those ofbanks could drop by 29% as theysuffer economic losses from thenatural disasters that are predictedto double every 10 years. The reportcan be found at www.cdproject.net.

Quantum jump for greenenergy technologySolar photovoltaics, wind turbines,and fuel cells will expand from a$9.5 billion market today to $89 bil-lion by 2012, according to CleanEdge, Inc., a consulting firm. CleanEnergy Trends 2003 predicts con-tinued breakthroughs in producinghydrogen and it foresees that anincreasing number of wind tur-bines and solar farmswill reach 300megawatts (MW).Japan and theEuropean Union areinvesting most heavilyin the green technolo-gies, while the action in the UnitedStates has been mainly on thestate and local levels, and the re-port suggests that the U.S. govern-ment’s lack of leadership will hurtits domestic green power industry.Large corporations are investing,despite the current economicdownturn. To view a copy of thereport, go to www.cleanedge.com.

News BriefsPBDE congeners and found that thelevels in 12 mothers ranged from15 to 580 ppb per gram of fat in theblood, and the levels in their babies’umbilical cords ranged from 14 to460 ppb. Although researchers werelooking for impacts on the thyroid,no such correlation between thePBDE levels and the infants’ thyroidlevels was found. However, they saythat their study shows that U.S. ba-bies may be exposed to relativelyhigh levels of PBDEs.

Some PBDEs have been bannedin Europe, and levels in countrieswhere their use was already discon-tinued are dropping, which hintsthat the same could hold true inNorth America if the substanceswere banned, Schecter says.

“Although the U.K. is subject tothe same European Union bans, theU.K.’s fire regulations on the need forretardant treatments in furnishings,etc., were particularly stringent,”Jones notes. “The U.K. has also beena major manufacturer of PBDEs.Hence, the amounts ‘present in theU.K.’ are likely to be high, relative toother European countries.” He saysthat researchers in his lab have com-pared the level of PBDEs in the airwith data collected by a group led byRon Hites at Indiana University, and

the levels are “very similar.”One of the continuing mysteries

surrounding the widely varying lev-els in humans is how these chemi-cals are taken up. Myrto Petreas,one of the California researcherswho reported new data in March(Environ Health Perspect. 10.1289/ehp.6220), speculates that diet can-not be the only source of PBDEs.

Petreas suspects indoor dust.Previous reports have shown thatlevels of PBDEs in dust can be strik-ingly high, up to the parts-per-mil-lion level (Environ. Sci. Technol.2001, 35, 274A–275A). The sourcesof PBDEs in dust include the flameretardants used in electronics prod-ucts and in some polyurethanefoam used as cushioning, says Hale.When the polyurethane foam in anold piece of furniture is exposed tothe environment, it tends to crum-ble, he explains; this releases thePBDEs embedded within the foam.

“Some people have nice, newfurniture,” Hale points out. “Othersare sitting on couches that arefalling apart. When they vacuum, itre-suspends the material. If [some-one is] chronically exposed to that,you can predict a spike in the[ir]blood level,” he says. —KELLYNBETTS

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Environmental▼News

A controversial U.S. toxicologicalreview of perchlorate has taken anunexpected twist: The final review,which was due out early this year, isbeing delayed because the EPA, theDepartment of Defense (DoD), andseveral other U.S. agencies have de-cided that the National Academy ofSciences (NAS) should now reviewthe issue.

EPA’s January 2002 draft toxico-logical report recommended adrinking water limit of about 1 partper billion (ppb). DoD, however,thinks that this analysis is flawedfor many reasons, but particularlybecause EPA relies primarily on labanimal data, according to an AirForce spokesperson. DoD wants toplace more emphasis on humandata.

The decision to ask for the re-view was based on interagencytalks between officials from EPA,

DoD, NASA, the White House’sCouncil on Environmental Quality,and the Office of Management andBudget that have been going on forsome time, according to WilliamFarland, EPA’s Office of Researchand Development acting deputyadministrative director for science.The NAS review is likely to takeabout two years and will delay anyregulatory action on perchlorate.

Perchlorate can reduce thyroidhormones by inhibiting iodine up-take. Because thyroid hormonesplay an important role in brain de-velopment, EPA used a battery ofneurodevelopmental tests with ratsto estimate the risks of perchlorateexposure.

The laboratory experimentsused in the perchlorate review arepart of EPA’s approved battery ofneurodevelopmental tests and in-clude measurements of brain size

and shape, animal behavior, andthyroid hormone levels. But the re-port of the external peer reviewcommittee that evaluated the cur-rent draft toxicological review indi-cates that some of the reviewerswere concerned about the qualityof the experimental studies.

Some reviewers noted that thework on rat thyroid hormone levelsdid not detect consistent effects ei-ther within, or across, several stud-ies. The experts believe that thishappened because the labs chosean analytical setup that was notsufficiently sensitive to reliablymeasure low levels of thyroid hor-mones in the rats.

In addition, most of the review-ers agreed that the measurementsto characterize brain dimensionswere subject to serious artifacts.This is because small changes inthe orientation of the brain slicesused to determine size dramaticallyaffect the measurements, accordingto neurotoxicologist Michael Aschner

Perchlorate regulation faces further delay

fallen by 5% since 1997 when Blairtook office, mainly due to the clo-sure of several coal-fired powerplants.

The 60% goal is a substantial hikefrom the United Kingdom’s currentdomestic target of reducing CO2emissions by 20% by 2010. The goalwas part of a white paper issuedby the Departments of Trade andIndustry; Transport; and Environ-ment, Food and Rural Affairs, whichdiscusses all aspects of energy inGreat Britain for the next 50 years.

The plan relies heavily on re-newable energy, with wind andsolar power providing 20% of elec-tricity by 2020. Currently, renew-ables provide only 3%. Toward thisgoal, the government has pledgedan extra $90 million for renewables,increasing spending to $580 millionover four years. The plan’s otherfocus is on improving energy effi-ciency, including developingenergy-efficient building regula-tions and tougher energy standardsfor new homes and electrical prod-ucts. However, the white paperwarns that the new policies couldraise costs for household electricity

5–15% by 2020, industrial electricityby 25%, and industrial gas up to30%.

The white paper notes that nu-clear power is “an unattractive op-tion”, but the authors don’t rule outnew nuclear plants in the future.This stance on nuclear power, aswell as the declaration to supportrenewable energy, contrasts sharplywith the Bush administration’s en-ergy policy. In their January budgetrequest to Congress, the adminis-tration proposed new funding fornuclear power, clean coal technolo-gies, and hydrogen fuel cells, butmostly reduced monies for renew-able energy programs (Environ. Sci.Technol. 2003, 37, 128−129).

There is considerable skepticismabout the United Kingdom’s ambi-tious goals. Cambridge Econo-metrics (CE), an independenteconomics consultancy, has fore-cast that the country will miss itsgoal of reducing emissions by 20%by 2010 and will see only an 8% re-duction. Economists also predictthat carbon emissions will go upafter 2015 as nuclear plants are de-commissioned. “The government is

assuming the 2010 reductions arein the bag, but our forecasts castdoubt on this, making the 2050 goaleven more challenging,” says CE’sSudhir Junankar. New measures, in-cluding energy taxes are needed inaddition to those recommended, hesays. The white paper also fails todiscuss emissions from road trans-port in any detail, which will con-tinue to grow, Junankar adds.

Environmental groups wel-comed the plans but warned thatthe new policy omits clear timeta-bles, targets, and investments, es-pecially with regard to renewables.The government has indicated adifference between a target, whichis a firm objective, and a policygoal, which is what they hope tomeet but can’t be held to. Althoughsome pieces of the white paperneed legislative approval, most ofit pertains to medium- and long-term policy.

The white paper, Our EnergyFuture Creating a Low-CarbonEconomy, is available at www.dti.gov.uk/energy/whitepaper/index.shtml. MARIA BURKE andCATHERINE COONEY