This article was taken from the January issue of Wired UK magazine. Be the first to read Wired's articles in print before they're posted online, and get your hands on loads of additional content by subscribing online
By law, Britain is committed to reducing carbon emissions 80 per cent by 2050 and we haven't a hope of achieving that target, even if we go ahead with all the nuclear power stations and wind farms that are now being argued over. The big problem will not be fixing the infrastructure, it's lifestyle: we insulate houses, and people turn up the thermostat and start wearing T-shirts in winter; we build low-energy schools and people drive to them in 4x4s.
The time has come to put the stark choice to the public: start making meaningful lifestyle decisions, or face energy rationing.
Without this debate individuals will continue to shelter behind "somebody else's problem" arguments and the odd low-energy light bulb.
So it's time to give a carbon allowance to each person. Every time we pay for goods and services, carbon is deducted from an individual's allowance until it runs out. Then they compete for spare allowances from others and the price they pay reflects this - as you take your second £10 Ryanair flight in a year they are hit for an extra £100, reflecting the real environmental impact of their travel.
Yes, the future will have winners and losers. But unless we accept that, society and all our children will suffer. Rationing looks as though it will be inevitable. So where is the real political leadership in this debate?
Chris Twinn is a director of Arup and head of their Building Engineering Sustainability Group, as well as a member of the English Heritage/CABE urban design panel and the RIBA sustainable futures committee
Read other articles from the Rebooting Britain series - Tax people back into the cities - Teach kids to see in four dimensions - Exercise a green foreign policy - Open democracy to the online masses - Reinvent the way we live together - Live life as a lottery - Pull the plug on broadcast regulation - Enact beta versions of new laws - Slash the universities and go virtual - Make policy using prediction markets - Transform cities into green jungles - Promote another crash - Ditch Twitter: it's dangerous for democracy - Encourage failure - Make education more flexible - Set government data (radically) free
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This article was originally published by WIRED UK
