soon after the then labour government commissioned the stern review on the economics of climate change which helped to push climate change to the centre of the policy debate in the united kingdom and many other oecd countries stern the united kingdom offered strong support for a global climate change agreement at the unfccc conference of parties in copenhagen in cop and cancun in cop in july the environment ministers of the united kingdom germany and france published joint articles in three leading newspapers emphasising the economic benefits of unilaterally increasing the eu emissionreduction target for to from to a proposal that is now official uk policy the eu recently raised its emissionreduction target to although the legally binding target has not been amended