UK 'will have to intervene in market to meet climate obligations'

Top climate adviser says UN warnings will force the government to act in ways that will be controversial and politically fraught

The UK's obligations in response to this week's warnings from the UN over global warming will be controversial and politically fraught, taking the country into "uncharted territory" and testing the political consensus on climate change, its top climate adviser has warned.

The government will have to regulate industry and intervene in the market in ways that will prove controversial in parliament, predicted Chris Stark, chief executive of the Committee on Climate Change (CCC). He is charged with advising ministers on how swift and how deep cuts in emissions should be and how they can be achieved, and his committee will start work on the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) advice shortly.