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This year will see unprecedented attention given to climate change. Boosted by new political will in Washington, our political leaders will begin to sign up to emissions reductions far tougher than Kyoto. In November Britain passed a legally-binding commitment to an 80 per cent cut in emissions by 2050. Barack Obama has promised to follow suit. But still, a major rethink about the way we use energy is urgently needed.
Where should we put in most effort? The conventional wisdom says it’s all about cars, planes, and wind farms. Both the media and climate change protesters, who last month shut down Stansted airport, help cement this view. But air travel contributes a few per cent to global emissions. Meanwhile activities in British homes and offices make up more than half. If we really want to sustain the planet, we must first fix the buildings where we live, work and play. On 26th November, the government office for science, which I run, published “Powering our Lives,” a report arguing that we need a new drive to turn our old, inefficient building stock into the low-carbon homes of the future.
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