Zero Carbon Britain

I follow the local Extinction Rebellion (XR) Chapter on Facebook and someone legitimately raised some doubts about the goal of getting to zero carbon (i.e. long term net zero carbon emissions) by 2025, the second demand of XR. This is what I wrote in response:

Thanks for speaking your mind. I think we have to welcome doubts and questions as much as certainty and zealousness. Doubt and the ability to speak of doubts is essential to a free society. I certainly welcome you speaking up - though clearly you were worried about the reception you would get. And that last gives me a bit of concern.

And here's my answer to your conundrum. I don't know how we'll do it. I don't think anyone does know at the moment. Extinction Rebellion is not proposing a program which gets us there. It is proposing that we hold citizen's assemblies to figure it out.

In terms of optimism, I would like the offer a story from Delhi, one of the most polluted cities in the world. In 1998 the Indian Supreme Court order that all public transport and all taxis (small auto-rickshaws make up a huge proportion of the traffic in Delhi) must be converted to CNG within two years.

CNG - compressed natural gas - is not a zero emission fuel, but it produces substantially fewer emissions. And being India, of course, it took longer than 2 years to get every vehicle converted. But most vehicles were converted and it made a substantial difference to air quality. When I visited in 2009 Delhi was still polluted, but the air was much cleaner than it had been.

As far as I can see we simple lack the will. If I were to attend a citizen's assembly, here is what I would suggest to get us on target:

* All new government vehicles zero emissions immediately .

* All new buses and taxis zero emissions within 2 years.

* Implement congestion charging in all major cities combined with extended ultra low emission zones. 

* Deregulate micro generation and reinstitute buying surplus for the national grid.

* Additional taxes on all international flights - incoming and outgoing - to be sure that the cost of flying reflects the cost to the planet. 

* Renationalise railways and rationalise fare structure to make trains competitive with air travel.

* Immediately ban fracking and seek damages from those who pursued it. 

* Prioritise and expedite the building of two (or more) new thorium-based nuclear power stations (thorium almost as efficient and waste is less of a problem). All new reactors to use the same design and have interchangeable parts.

* Commission Tesla to make us several whacking-great batteries (as in South Australia) to store solar and wind based power for non-generating periods. 

* Step up programs to insulate houses that have not been upgraded. Raise standards on new builds.

* I would begin lawsuits to hold oil companies to account for their role in climate change denial with a view to recovering substantial amounts of wealth to reinvest in green tech.

* I would seek to reforest where possible and to reflood wetlands (which are even better carbon sinks). 

If elected I would also institute a Robin Hood Tax on all capital transactions - money cannot simply flee the country anymore. I would tax land so that rates of income and corporation taxes could be lowered - wealth is concentrated in land and mostly escapes taxation. I would introduce a tax on polluters and again lower income and corporation taxes. I would ban non-UK residents from owning residential property (which is the root of the housing crisis). I would also hold a modern debt jubilee: i.e. every person in the UK to be given between £5,000 and 10,000 with the understanding that any debts must be paid down before it can be spent (paid for by a government bond issue). And make personal credit harder to get from banks. We need household spending to drop below household income.

Just personally, I'd revoke Article 50 and begin aggressively arguing for reform of the EU away from Neoliberal ideology towards something more pragmatic. I would insist that the IMF and World Banks be similarly reformed away from Neoliberalism. Economic liberalism was a failure the first time around and it's a failure this time too.

This is based on many years of thinking about how to better run the UK/World economy and what I see as the best advice from heterodox economists. This is my version of the Green New Deal.

I believe it would create an economic stimulus to help us fund the transition to zero carbon. And I think that if we were to do all this, along with the ideas that other people come up with, we could get close to the target in the time required. The UK could easily become the world's first zero carbon nation and that would give us meaning and purpose. And we could export our success and help other nations achieve what we have.

After that we will need to look at zero growth or perhaps even shrinking the economy to lessen the load on Gaia. But one battle at a time.