It is becoming clear that the world is not prepared to cut its use of fossil fuels rapidly enough to prevent catastrophic, runaway climate change. People are not prepared to vote for the changes to their lifestyles that would be needed, partly because they believe that if their country doesn’t burn the oil, coal and gas, another country will, making the sacrifice futile. Is cutting my own carbon footprint a waste of time?

So what can the UK do instead that will be both effective in combating climate change, and politically acceptable to the electorate? (And what can I do now?)

There are 5 things that 2% For The Planet argues that Britain needs to do:

1. Remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

"Carbon scrubbing", using sodium hydroxide to take carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere, is one of several possible technological solutions.

2. Save the Rainforest.

Deforestation puts more carbon into the atmosphere each year than, for example, total worldwide car, train and plane travel.

3. Fit carbon capture and storage technology to power stations.

Clearly, the world is not going to leave most of the remaining coal and oil in the ground unburnt, so when we burn it, we need to capture as much of the carbon dioxide as possible.

4. Capture soot emissions from cars, open fires and factories.

   Soot is the second worst contributor to global warming, after carbon dioxide. The technology to filter out soot already exists, and implementing it would be simple and effective.

5. Use wood-burning power stations fitted with carbon capture and storage (CCS).

Continuously planting, chopping down and replanting trees in order to burn the wood for power has the overall effect of removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere because the growing tree absorbs
more carbon than the CCS allows the power station to emit.

“And what can I do now?”