Zero pollution Britain in 20 years, says extreme report
Britain could cut carbon emissions to zero in 20 years - we’d only have to end air travel, stop using fuel-driven cars and all become vegetarian. Extreme? What makes you say that? The radical vision has comes in a new report, released today, by the Centre for Alternative Technology (CAT). The report will be presented to the All Party Parliamentary Climate Change Group at the House of Commons.
The CAT, however, don’t think they're off the planet. Development director Paul Allen said:
"What we are saying is that we need a huge programme, a bit like the US space project in the 60s. When that was launched it was known to be a huge target, but the driving force to make it work was there. We think that Zero Carbon Britain can do that again - it can give us a positive future.”
[via PA]
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All good visions must start a little high, and their main point is perhaps a good one. If there is true human will to achieve something we can usually do it, and the environment should be no different. At least taking fossil fuel burning cars off the road isn’t as wild as it sounds, since technology would allow us to do that today. A 20 year deadline sounds quite ample.
The CAT claim achieving such a drastic cut in emissions is possible and may be the only way to tackle climate change, which they claim is threatening to spiral out of control. The idea came when they set themselves a challenge to simulate what a zero carbon Britain could look like in 2027. They suggest that money would be overtaken in importance by carbon credits, a national carbon allowance tracked using special smart cards. People would be given their own carbon credits called Tradable Energy Quotas (TEQs) and carry them on the environmental equivalent of the London transport Oyster card. Each year the free allocation would decrease as the country moves towards zero carbon, using the economy to force to consider radical lifestyle changes. Very Big Brother, don’t you think?
Thank you for featuring our report on your blog. If you or your readers would like to read the executive summary or the full report, there should be a pdf version available on our site www.zerocarbonbritain.com in the next week. If you would like me to send you one, please send me an email sara.turnbull@cat.org.uk
Posted by: Sara Turnbull | July 9, 2007 3:02 PM