Changing the Culture

Reposted from: http://unfccc.int/essential_background/feeling_the_heat/items/2910.php

Changing Lifestyles and Rules - The role of culture and habit

* People don't necessarily make decisions based on efficiency or the health of the environment. They are apt to do what they've done in the past, what is expected, what their friends and neighbors do, what is fashionable. Driving a car with a large engine when a small engine -- which burns less fuel -- will do the job is a matter of choice. In choosing cars and electrical appliances and methods for heating and cooling their homes, human beings don't necessarily think about climate change. And when thousands and even millions of people make choices that add unnecessarily to the global warming problem, the effects can be considerable.


* Traditions and habits also may limit the lifestyle choices that are available. Businesses and governments tend not to supply products, services, and policies people don't want. Mass transit is much less wasteful of fossil fuels than automobile use, but if the public hasn't demanded mass transit and the necessary train lines and subway systems and bus routes haven't been built, then they aren't quickly available when and if people change their minds. Momentum has to be built up for such changes . . . and yet, paradoxically, if the options aren't available, it's hard to establish momentum for them. "Hybrid" cars use roughly half the gasoline of standard automobiles, but because few customers have asked for such vehicles, the price per car is high and few auto makers produce them.

* Lack of demand also slows innovation and technological progress, while heightened interest accelerates it. The key here is "interest." If customers and citizens, especially in industrialized countries, become strongly interested in combating global warming and are willing to buy products that cut emissions, new processes and technologies could well be invented that would greatly reduce or even solve the problem. Enormous technological breakthroughs in the past have occurred because of such pressures.

Governments as prods and guides

* Laws and regulations can have a major impact on greenhouse-gas emissions because they affect business behavior and public habits. Some governments encourage the use of mass transit; some -- through tax arrangements, road-building programmes, and even subsidies -- encourage the burning of fossil fuels. One way (admittedly not always popular) of changing behavior is to make it illegal. Another is to make it more expensive through taxes or penalties.

* Some governments, spurred by membership in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, have already attempted to cut greenhouse gas emissions with a mixture of carrots and sticks -- with inducements, subsidies, voluntary programmes, regulations, and fines. Several have attacked the problem directly by imposing "taxes" on carbon use. Others have established "carbon markets" where units of energy use may be bought and sold. These arrangements anticipate provisions that will apply to governments that have ratified the Kyoto Protocol, once the Protocol enters into force.

* Minimum standards for energy efficiency in new buildings were updated recently in a series of countries, including Austria, France, Japan, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom. Such measures can include requirements for walls and roofs that limit heat loss. And they can require a minimum level of thermal efficiency for furnaces and water heaters.

* Standards for energy efficiency in electrical appliances have been established by some governments. A programme begun by Japan in 1998 is expected to cut the energy requirements of home video recorders by 59 per cent, refrigerators by 30 per cent, and computers by 83 per cent. The sting of more stringent regulations can be softened by inducements, as in the Netherlands, where tougher European Community appliance standards are now in effect. In the Netherlands, householders are entitled to a partial rebate on the purchase prices of the most efficient appliances.

* Economic and fiscal instruments have been used to spur shifts in freight transport from roads to rail systems and ships, which use less fuel per ton of goods transported. Examples are the introduction of road tolls in Austria and mileage-based tolls for lorries in Austria, Germany, and Slovenia; increased investments in rail systems in Austria and Belgium; and promotion of ship and rail use for freight in Belgium, Switzerland, and Japan.

* Among voluntary arrangements is an agreement reached between the European Union and European and Asian automobile manufacturer organizations setting reduced targets for carbon-dioxide emissions from passenger cars and light commercial vehicles.

* "Green tariffs" have been used by Belgium, Germany, Hungary and Switzerland to spur the use of renewable energy. The "tariffs" guarantee electrical-generating companies a higher price for a unit of renewable energy than the prevailing market price.

* Steps have been taken by a number of governments to require waste firms and landfills to prevent the escape of greenhouse gases such as methane. Landfill taxes per ton of waste in Switzerland and Norway are higher for facilties that are not sealed. In Austria, taxes are higher for landfills that do not recover the methane emitted.

PM outlines climate action plan

Reposted from: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7101075.stm

PM outlines climate action plan

Mr Brown said there were hard choices ahead Speech Excerpt

Prime Minister Gordon Brown has said there will be a "green hotline" to advise people on what they can do to cut their impact on the environment.

Mr Brown, who said the UK's emission target of a 60% cut by 2050 could be increased to 80%, said he would also seek the end of one-use plastic bags.

In his first speech on the environment as PM he said there would be "hard choices and tough decisions".

But he said Britain could lead the world and gain thousands of jobs.

The new Green Homes Service - a telephone line, website and advice centres - aims to provide a single point of contact for people who want a "home energy audit".

Home energy

It will also give advice on saving water, reducing waste and other ways to be more environmentally friendly.

Mr Brown said, in 50 of Britain's poorest areas, homes would be offered energy efficiency deals, and for those selling or buying energy wasting homes it would offer discounted help.

While the richest countries have caused climate change it is the poorest who are already suffering its effects Gordon Brown Analysis: Tackling the home front Reaction to speech

He said it represented "the biggest improvement in home energy efficiency in our history", with a third of households offered help over the next three years to reduce their emissions.

In his wide-ranging speech, the prime minister said climate change had been the product of many generations, but "overcoming it must be the great project of this generation".

Emissions cap

He added: "I believe it will require no less than a fourth technological revolution. In the past the steam engine, the internal combustion engine, the microprocessor transformed not just technology but the way our society has been organised and the way people live.

"Now we're about to embark on a comparable technological transformation to low carbon energy and energy efficiency and this represents an immense challenge to Britain, but it is also an opportunity."

High targets have been set for Britain's cut in emissions

Mr Brown said he wanted Britain to become a "world leader" in building a low carbon economy, which could lead to thousands of new British businesses, hundreds of thousands of new jobs and a "vast export market".

And the prime minister also said he wanted to work with countries like the US and Japan to establish a new "funding framework", to help developing countries adjust to low carbon growth, adapt to climate change and tackle deforestation.

"While the richest countries have caused climate change it is the poorest who are already suffering its effects," Mr Brown said.

Plastic bags

He said the Climate Change Bill put a "statutory cap" on Britain's carbon emissions - with five year "carbon budgets" to give certainty for businesses and investors.

And he said he wants the post-2012 agreement, to be discussed at a climate change summit in Bali in December, to include "binding emissions caps" for all developed countries.

The Climate Change Bill would ensure Britain met its target of a 60% reduction in emissions by 2050.

Until Gordon Brown learns that tough action is needed to back up his warm words, he cannot be the change the country needs Peter Ainsworth Conservatives

But he said new evidence suggested developed countries may have to reduce emissions by up to 80% - and he would ask the committee on climate change "to advise us, as it begins to consider the first three five-year budgets, on whether our own domestic target should be tightened up to 80%".

Mr Brown also said the government would convene a forum of supermarkets, the British Retail Consortium and others to look at how to reduce plastic bags to cut landfill waste.

"I am convinced that we can eliminate single-use disposable bags altogether, in favour of long-lasting and more sustainable alternatives," he said.

'Unequivocal'

Britain is "absolutely committed to meeting our share" of the EU's 2020 renewable energy target, he said.

It could mean the UK will have to produce between 40 and 50% of its electricity from renewable sources by 2020 - the current figure is about 5%.

BBC environment analyst Roger Harrabin said this would be "staggering", but he said that the government was seeking to negotiate down the EU target.

The government blithely talks of the opportunities created by green industries yet refuses to promote fledgling initiatives properly Chris Huhne Liberal Democrats

Shadow environment secretary Peter Ainsworth said Mr Brown's record on the environment consisted of "missing targets, then scrapping them, then cutting the budgets that deal with them".

"Just this weekend, we learnt of a further #300 million of crippling cuts to key environmental services.

"Until Gordon Brown learns that tough action is needed to back up his warm words, he cannot be the change the country needs," he said.

Global deal

Liberal Democrat environment spokesman Chris Huhne said he wanted to see whether Mr Brown was prepared to meet promises on renewable energy without counting nuclear power.

And he added: "The government blithely talks of the opportunities created by green industries yet refuses to promote fledgling initiatives properly.

"Boasts of a new green home service seem shallow when recent cuts to the New Millennium Grants will dissuade many homeowners from installing energy saving measures in their homes."

United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has challenged governments to act on the findings of a major new report on climate change, saying real and affordable ways to deal with the problem existed.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change says climate change is "unequivocal" and may bring "abrupt and irreversible" impacts.

Climate change will be discussed at a forthcoming summit of Commonwealth leaders, just ahead of a UN meeting in Indonesia where a new global deal on emissions will be considered.