Climate Change

Climate change is one of the biggest challenges facing humanity.  There is now overwhelming agreement amongst climate scientists that human activity is driving accelerated warming of our planet.  Some continued warming is now inevitable, but if we act now and with sufficient determination we can probably keep overall global warming below 2% centigrade.  Beyond that point the impacts of climate change are likely to become increasingly severe and feedbacks are likely to kick in, leading to even faster and more extreme rises.

The UK Government has talked a lot about tackling climate change, but has done very little.  The technology exists to meet humanity's needs in more sustainable ways, what has so far been lacking is the political will.  To try to force them into action FoE organized the Big Ask campaign, to push for a Climate Bill to impose legally binding targets on the Government. The first phase of this campaign came to a successful conclusion when the Government agreed to introduce a bill; however, the bill currently before parliament  needs strengthening:  

• The scientific consensus is that we need to cut CO2 emissions by at least 80%, by 2050, not 60% as the bill currently proposes;

• Emissions from international aviation and shipping are not included, despite their significant and growing importance;

• We need to tie Government to annual targets, not just 5 yearly ones as is currently proposed.  Five years is longer than the term of most parliaments and with only 5 yearly targets governments would be tempted to do very little and then pass responsibility to their successors.

You can click on this link to write to your MP and urge them them to back a strong Climate Bill.

Keeping up the pressure and combating climate change in the right way

Getting a strong Climate Act through Parliament is not the end of the matter. We will still need to keep up the pressure to ensure that the UK Government actually introduces the kind of measures that will be needed to meet the targets.  It is also important that we ensure that the measures adopted are the right ones, not ones that will cause more problems than they solve, or ones that expect sacrifices from the poorest, while leaving the rich free to pollute.

The technologies

Some of the technologies currently being pushed by the government, such as nuclear power, the Severn Barrage and bio-fuels are amongst those that risk making things worse:  

• Nuclear power is an expensive and dangerous diversion, which we don't need.  

• Some bio-fuels, such as those produced from waste, have a potential role to play, but current policies are promoting bio-fuels from unsustainable sources, which are damaging bio-diversity, creating food shortages, fuelling human rights abuses and actually pushing up CO2 emissions.

• This country has immense resources of tidal power, which we ought to be tapping.  The Severn Estuary has particular potential; however, the Government's favoured scheme for exploiting this would cause major local environmental damage, despite much less ecologically damaging alternatives such as tidal lagoons being available, see for instance this paper.

In the short term the most cost effective way of reducing CO2 emissions is to invest in improving energy efficiency.  One way of doing this would be to make energy providers responsible for meeting consumers energy needs in the most energy efficient way possible.  They could be required to offer all householders a free energy efficiency audit and then to offer to carry out the recommended work, paid for with low, or interest free loans, repayable over a long enough period that consumers benefited immediately from reduced bills.  If this is not compatible with a privatized industry seeking to maximize its profits, then perhaps it needs to be back under public control.

If combined with energy efficiency measures then this country has more than adequate renewable energy resources to meet its needs in sustainable ways, without resorting to dangerous and expensive diversions like nuclear power, see for instance this report and this report; however, it is likely to require much more government intervention to channel energy investment in the right direction and in the meantime we certainly need an immediate ban on all new coal fired developments, unless they incorporate "carbon capture" technology from the outset.

Who is responsible and who pays

There are things that everyone can do to help reduce CO2 emissions and some measures can save people money and improve their quality of life; however, we need to recognize that some necessary changes will be perceived as sacrifices, especially if people are not offered better alternatives.  Most people will not make major changes to their lifestyle if they perceive them as involving significant sacrifice, unless they can see that everyone is going to have to do the same. We also need to recognize that people's choices are constrained by the options available to them and that there are limits to what individuals can do anyway.  

All of these considerations mean that we need Government action, not just exhortation.   To give people more choices, for instance, we need investment in better and cheaper public transport, rather than in more roads and runways, although, if large amounts of taxpayers money are being channelled into public transport then some may feel that this industry should also be back under public control, to avoid our money disappearing into private profits.  An additional advantage of this would be to make it easier to provide properly integrated services.

We also need to be wary of an over reliance on so called "green taxes".  We are in favour of ensuring that the cost of things more accurately reflects their environmental impact, but seeking to achieve this should not be used as an excuse to change the tax system in ways that shifts more of the tax burden from the better off to the less well off.  Green Taxes need to be linked to redistributitive policies, to ensure that the costs of change are shared fairly and we also need other types of intervention, as well as changes in taxation.

We need international action

This country needs to do its share and can hopefully give a lead, in action, rather than just in words, but climate change is an international problem, which we cannot tackle alone.  

To get expanding economies such as China and India on board we need to assist them to develop in more sustainable ways than we did and we need to move towards every country having a carbon allowance based on its population. This means accepting that we need to make bigger cuts to allow other countries to develop, albeit in more sustainable ways.  Set against this, greenhouse gas emissions arising from land use changes should be included in all calculations, since things like deforestation are as important as burning fossil fuels when it comes to driving climate change.

Finally, if some of the biggest polluters such as the US continue to refuse to do their share then perhaps we should be looking at trying to mobilize international economic sanctions against them.

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