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The climate crisis has been caused by too much use of fossil fuels.

So the obvious solution is to reduce use of fossil fuels.

The timescale needed is given by the United Nations SR15 report, i.e. halving global greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, except that for several reasons, reductions in the UK needs to be faster.

• worsening climate data since the data considerd in the SR15 report
• legacy emissions
• equity

The decline in UK emissions could have been gradual e.g. 4% per year if it had been started earlier, but with the government inaction, it now needs to be rapid - at least 20% per year.

The type of target is crucial. There is currently a lot of discussion about the date at which the country will reach zero CO2 emissions (or net-zero), but this is an opportunity for prevarification if there is no discussion about how fast to reduce emissions this year, next year, and so on.

Previous generations worked hard to make the world a more pleasant place for their children and grandchildren. For example, people planted avenues of trees knowing that they would never themselves see the end result.

We should now be moving to a sustainable way of living - i.e. ways of living that are sustainable in the long term. 'Sustainable' includes the concept of 'ethical' (treating others as you would like to be treated yourself) since unethical ways of living are not sustainable in the long term.

Urgent action is needed from all elements of society:

• national governments
• local governments - see document 7
• the media
• companies
• campigning and not-for-profit organisations
• citizens.

Urgent action is needed in all forms of energy use:

• transport
• home heating and appliances
• food production and delivery
• other manufacturing

First published 2007
Last updated: 1 Dec 2022