A Zero Carbon Britain By 2030?

The other day I found a website that claims to have a plan to cut Britain's carbon emissions to zero in less than 20 years.

Zero Carbon Britain proposes radical changes that would see the UK cut it's energy demand by over 50% (by making all homes more energy efficient, and reforming transport), planting new forests, the widespread use of soil sequestration (using biochar), and using a wide range of renewable sources of energy (but mostly offshore wind) to replace fossil fuels.

It's an ambitious plan but is it workable?

Well, their report lays it all out, point-by-point and even tries to anticipate potential criticisms. So let's just assume it's technically possible.

What's stopping it, or something like it, from happening here, or anywhere else in the World then? The politicians.

Basically they'd see it as a vote loser. After all there's a sizable chunk of the public that don't believe climate change is happening, or that it won't have much effect, or that we can't do anything about it. Then there are all those people who have yet to be convinced either way.

If you present these sort of people with a plan that is going to cost hundreds of billions and mean a lot of changes in their lives, they're going to be outraged.

This is a problem, because things have got to the stage where radical action such as Zero Carbon is becoming increasingly likely if we are to avoid the worst effects of climate change. Basically, we've delayed too long. If we'd acted effectively back when, say, the Kyoto Protocol was being adopted in 1997, we'd have had far less to do now, and the total bill would have been cheaper. Now, every year that passes without action, just makes the job tougher and the cost higher.

So how can this situation be turned around? Well, to be honest, a lot better minds than mine have tried to figure this one out and failed.

I guess the central problem is that people find it difficult to believe that climate change is happening at all. When they look out the window, it looks the same as ever. That's the thing with climate change, it's a gradual process: Average temperatures creep up; sea-level rises little by little; polar ice sheets and glaciers disappear a bit at a time. There will be no single, dramatic event that provides a wake-up call to humanity. But, let's face it, that's what everyone's waiting for isn't it? Everyone knows in their guts that so many scientists, from so many disciplines can't be wrong but we just don't want the emissions party to end.

This is where governments usually step in. They make hard decisions for us all the time: Over pensions, austerity cuts, taxation, wars etc. Yet little is being done over this issue. Fear of voter backlash? Failure to truly understand the gravity of the situation? Incompetence? Or in the pocket of the fossil fuel industry? Take your pick.

The fact is, the answers are out there. Governments only have to find the courage to use them.