Britain is not on course to meet its climate change targets for reducing carbon emissions, the Government was warned by the independent Committee on Climate Change. The Government needs to reduce carbon dioxide by 34 per cent (on 1990 levels) by 2020. However in its second progress report to Parliament, the committee said the sharp fall in UK greenhouse gas emissions of 8.6 per cent last year is almost entirely due to the recession, and that the proportion of the drop due to actual climate policies is but "a fraction" of the total.