In addition to ambitious emissions reduction targets the UK Government recognises the need for a strategic approach to secure a low-carbon future.  

On 15 July 2009 the Government launched the "UK Low Carbon Transistion Plan (PDF)", an economy-wide strategy to convert the UK into a permanent low carbon economy.  The Plan details how we will meet our own domestic climate targets – as set in law in the world's first Climate Change Act – to cut emissions by 34 per cent by 2020 based on 1990 levels.

Alongside the Plan, the Government has also published*

• The Low Carbon Industrial Strategy (PDF), which sets out active interventions to support industries critical to tackling climate change.
• The Renewable Energy Strategy (PDF), which maps out how we will deliver the UK's renewable energy target by 2020.
• The Low Carbon Transport Plan, which sets out how to reduce carbon emissions from domestiv transport over the next decade.

The consultation document for the Low Carbon Industrial Strategy, "Low Carbon Industrial Strategy: A vision" which was launched in March 2009 and sets out the scope and ambition of the Government's plans, is available in Japanese here (PDF).

April 2010 will see the start of the Carbon Reduction Commitment, a new domestic emissions trading and energy efficiency scheme.  It has been designed to tackle CO2 emissions not already covered by the Climate Change Agreements and the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS), and hence to help achieve emissions reductions over the whole of the economy.

Local governments and companies in the UK have contributed case studies of how they have made money by reducing the emission of gases that cause climate change to a new website, Climate Success. Examples from other countries, including Japan, are welcome.