I was asked to speak to a public meeting about climate change yesterday organised by Friends of the Earth.  This is pretty much what I said:

I think we all seem to know and accept that climate change is no longer an issue for future generations, but has become something that we are likely to see happen to us in our, and our children’s lifetimes.
 
There are currently quite a number of pressures on institutions to reduce the impact that they make on the environment – how water is used, the waste we produce and the energy that is used are all subject to legislation and guidance.  The fact that Lewisham is a Beacon Council for Sustainable Energy is testament to that and to the profile that this agenda has had in the Council for more years than I’ve been a member.
 
What is much less clear is the pressures that are brought to bear on you and I as individuals.  We live in a fiercely consumerist culture, and we are lucky enough to almost be able to do anything we want – fly round the world, buy toys made in China, mange tout from Kenya, and wine from Chile.  And we do it almost without a thought…
 
Let me give you a few examples.
 
Every time I’ve done one of those “how much of an impact do you have on the environment” surveys its come out saying that for everyone to live like me – terraced house, 2 kids, a foreign holiday a year, etc. etc. – we’d need two and a half earths, rather than the one we’ve got. 
 
I’d point out in my defence that I don’t drive a car and I walk over 5 miles a day.
 
And while I’ve always been a sci-fi fan I don’t yet see the moon bases or the means to mass transport everyone there that were predicted by TV shows from when I was growing up in the 1970s.
 
I read a report recently that told me:
 
Households are responsible for 28% of total final energy demand, 34% of electricity use, and a quarter of UK carbon dioxide emissions.

We now use 70% more electricity for lights and appliances than we did in 1970 Electricity and gas use has risen by nearly 20% since 1990, and the trend continues.

Up to half of UK householders do not even look at their energy bills.

And
 
the ‘non fuel-poor’, those able to pay for energy saving investments, who account for 80% of domestic energy use.  

Add to that the increasing amount of waste we produce (3% a year) and it is clear why I need another world and a half to live in.
 
What this tells me is that there must be incentives for us as individuals as well as for institutions and government to change our behaviour.
 
Another of the reports I’ve been reading lately has been about what changes public behaviour.  It looked at things like the widespread resistance and non-compliance there was to wearing seatbelts 30 years ago and way that changed, and the way that the debate around smoking in public places has now moved on from where it was a decade or so ago.
 
It seems to me that we need to learn some of those lessons around the way that we as individuals react with our environment.  I’m not sure that I have the answers and I’m even less sure that there are answers that’ll be easy to introduce, but I’m convinced that unless they are developed quite quickly our chance may have slipped by.
 
As a local authority we need to find ways to help people who want to make positive changes to the way they live;
 
Making planning for microgeneration easier
using the ability to generate economies of scale to make things affordable
trying to enable positive action in a flexible manner
and developing sustainable services that are simple and easy to use
are some of the steps that come to mind
 
But I stress again this can’t be a debate where we as individuals expect institutions (however well intentioned) to come up will all the solutions and to carry all the burdens.
 
I need the institutions I rely on to be thinking about these things, but I also need to find ways to reduce the impact that I and my family have on the planet and I need to find a way of involving my neighbours in that same quest.

Friends of the Earth want us all to join their big ask campaign which would legislate for reductions in carbon at 3% a year.

Update: You can read what Joan said at the meeting over on her website.