THE UK CARBON FOOTPRINT AND GLOBAL HEATING

To achieve sustainable levels of global heating, humanity has to reduce its' "Carbon Footprint" - which is measured in "tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalents" (that is heating equivalents) or tCO2eq's per year. These are well established, since 1896 and earlier. And, for the heating equivalents, we now have "budgets", for 2 degrees Celsius of global warming, or for 1.5 deg C of global warming. Set in billions of tonnes of CO2eq that we can afford to add to the atmosphere, to achieve those levels of heating.

Since I was born in 1961, the heating layer has gone from 318 ppm to 419 ppm today. So the "heating layer" - or concentration of CO2 - the main heating gas - has gone up by a third. Thus already achieving climatic records every year, and almost 1 deg C of global average heating. Hotter atmospheres carry more water.

Personally - I have a relatively efficient, small and well insulated home - so I use only 1000kWh of electricity and 3500 kWh of gas pp/yr. Or, in other words, 1.0 tonnes of CO2eq (at current emission factors). Plus 2.1 tonnes for my food (as I don't really eat beef/lamb* and I often have beans or soya). My footprint does however include around another 3 tCO2eq at work (owing to a very draughty Victorian building that, for most occupants, is too-hot and too-cold). But, I don't own a car and haven't flown anywhere for 9 years.

By contrast the averages, per person, for the UK are nearly 3 tonnes for gas+electricity, 5 tonnes for food (with over 3 tCO2eq for the average beef/lamb consumption alone), 3.6 tCO2eq/yr for a car, and over 1.5 tCO2eq for a short overseas holiday.

However according to the World Bank, looking at national boundary emissions, UK emissions in 2016 were only 7.1 tCO2eq per capita per year, whereas, according to what I compiled (above) from good sources, our footprint is more like 11-13 tCO2eq/cap/yr. So really, unless I am very much mistaken, we must "offshore" a lot of our emissions, in food/ manufactures/ and holidays.

*An excellent summary of food emissions may be found at www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-46459714
**Published in "Place Matters, Issue 22, July 2020, DP-URC, Cambridge".

How can we use the government's own tools to help ensure there is no return to unsustainables?

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Below are thoughts (links and snippets) on what you might do to COMPEL CLIMATE ACTION IN THE CORONAVIRUS RECOVERY through legal means

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A CAMPAIGN TO:"Use the government's own tools (Green Book, Valuations, Benefits/Costs analysis, etc) to help ensure there is no return to unsustainables" in THE POST-CORONAVIRUS ECONOMY?

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NEWS / ITEMS:

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Climate change: A new subject for the law | UNESCO | Mar 2019   https://en.unesco.org/courier/2019-3/climate-change-new-subject-law

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Governments and firms in 28 countries sued over climate crisis - report | Climate change | The Guardian | 4 Jul 2019 https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/jul/04/governments-and-firms-28-countries-sued-climate-crisis-report

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"We are seeing increasing public and business support for smart climate policies, including carbon tax proposals like the [bipartisan US bill] [..] introduced today [26-Sep-2019]" | said Andrew Steer, president of the World Resources Institute | https://www.wri.org/news/2019/09/statement-another-bipartisan-carbon-pricing-bill-introduced-house 

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And selfishly pursuing particular interests risks “damaging the peaceful coexistence and development of future generations” | said Pope Francis, in his Easter Blessing. |  https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2020-04/pope-easter-urbi-et-orbi-blessing.html

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The Netherlands Supreme Court, in the Urgenda case last year, ordered [in December 2019] the government to step up cuts in emissions.

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Heathrow third runway: UK government actions ruled "illegal" | Friends of the Earth  |  https://friendsoftheearth.uk/climate-change/Heathrow-third-runway-UK-government-actions-ruled-illegal  

A change in the wind? Heathrow expansion policy ruled unlawful in victory for climate campaigners | Hogan Lovells Publications | 16 March 2020    https://www.hoganlovells.com/en/publications/a-change-in-the-wind-heathrow-expansion-policy-ruled-unlawful-in-victory-for-climate-campaigners

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Legal action launched against UK's HS2 project by Chris Packham.     www.ft.com.  | 3 Mar 2020 | He is seeking a judicial review ...

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‘Model statute’ to hold governments to account on climate change | Launched by International Bar Association | 18 February 2020   https://www.lawgazette.co.uk/law/model-statute-to-hold-governments-to-account-on-climate-change/5103130.article | 

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FACTORS/CONSIDERATIONS:
- Climate : Paris Agreement
- Duty of care 
- Town & Country / Planning Act 
- Climate Change Act
- Stakeholders (future/children, remote/foreign). 
- Driving forces (consumption, myopia, preferences, perverse incentives, population). 
- Covid19 : recovery : shutdown : benefits [retain] (/costs) [avoid]. 
- Only 9% of Britons want to return to "normal" in post-coronavirus life | news.sky.com/story/coronavirus-only-9-of-britons-want-life-to-return-to-normal-once-lockdown-is-over-11974459 | survey human likes by thersa.org.uk. 
- Health, fitness & well-being. 
- UNDHR [?]. 

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ACTIONS [?]:

• Write to leaders; 
• Blog; 
• Request sensible (action) policy; 
• Fund legal challenges; 
• Donate to activist charities (eg FriendsOfTheEarth.org.uk); 
• Check your (district;county;state;nation's) plan for compliance; 
• Pay for a professional to check compliance; 
• Join legal challenges; 
• Campaign among your congregation, to do the above.

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A FEW HOPES FOR POST-CORONAVIRUS:

• Less traffic on the roads (and therefore less pollution), because of many more people working from home. This should be easier for people once schools are open again.  
• Staggered (or flexible) working hours to spread traffic over a longer period, again reducing traffic (and perhaps also pollution).
• More nature and less cruelty.
• More sharing of cars, both for journeys to work and for school drop-offs.
• More walking and people travelling by bicycle, for work and leisure.

"How to make a resilient recovery" from Covid19, from the Committee for Climate Change, @theCCCuk:

• Climate investments for economic recovery + jobs.
• Promote positive, long-term, behaviours.
• Tackle climate and the ‘resilience deficit’ therein.
• Embed fairness.
• No lock-in of GHGs /or of increased risk.
• Incentives to cut emissions in taxation policies.

www.theccc.org.uk/2020/05/06/take-urgent-action-on-six-key-principles-for-a-resilient-recovery/

Green Recovery from COVID-19: A COP26 Universities Network Briefing:

• adopt +ve behaviours.
• #cleantech.
• education + training.
• fairer and more just #society.
• #harmony with nature.

www.zero.cam.ac.uk/stories/green-recovery-covid-19-cop26-universities-network-briefing

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Social media (and Politics): shouting at each other across the void?

U.S. President Barack Obama (2014) acknowledged the emerging influence of blogging [eg. tweeting & content-sharing] upon society by saying

"if the direction of the news is all blogosphere, all opinions,
with no serious fact-checking,
no serious attempts to put stories in context, then what you will end up getting is people shouting at each other across the void but not a lot of mutual understanding".

Tim O'Reilly and others came up with a list of seven proposed ideas (oreilly.com):

1. Take responsibility not just for your own words, but for the comments you allow on your blog.

2. Label your tolerance level for abusive comments.

3. Consider eliminating anonymous comments.

4. Ignore the trolls.

5. Take the conversation offline, and talk directly, or find an intermediary who can do so.

6. If you know someone who is behaving badly, tell them so.

7. Don't say anything online that you wouldn't say in person.

Needs Based Allocation (with work)?

How might a "Needs Based Allocation" system function in practice? With:

• rewards, and
• the requirement to work, or create virtue.
• prices (for frugality).