healthier, happier and richer

Our website, Climateanswers.info, is broadly split up into three: technological answers, political answers and behavioural answers.

Why have we done this?

Well, this site is really about actions and not prohibitions – what we can do, rather than just what we shouldn’t. We do not wear hair shirts at Climate Answers and we are born optimists!

The Labour Party came to power in 1997 committed to devolving powers to Scotland and Wales, and re-creating a London-wide government. It was also determined to improve the political situation in Northern Ireland and was willing to use devolution to achieve this. Therefore, the last 12 years have seen considerable change to the constitution of the UK. Climate change was not a driving force behind any of this, but, nevertheless, the new tiers of government have had significant impact on what the UK is doing.

“Climate change is the biggest global health threat of the 21st century.”

These are the opening words of an editorial and also a major report published this week in the Lancet and University College London Institute for Global Health Commission.

Presidents Hu and Obama met today in Beijing and climate change was high on the agenda. China and the US are now the two largest producers of greenhouse gas emissions, responsible for over a third of total annual global emissions – though the US has caused 30% of the total historical contribution, whereas China has contributed just 7%, and US per capita emissions are 23.5 tons, whereas China’s are 5.5 tons.

Not surprisingly, the media discussion of climate change is dominated by the countdown to Copenhagen. EU environment ministers are meeting today to try to strengthen the European negotiating position, though they won’t be able to make progress on the key issue of funding, as this is up to finance ministers.

Last night, I went to hear the UK’s shadow foreign secretary, William Hague, give a speech about what a UK Conservative government would do about diplomacy and climate change. This is one of a series of speeches on climate from the shadow cabinet this week, which is encouraging.

This morning the Green Fiscal Commission is publishing a report based on extensive research and economic modelling, which demonstrates that increasing taxes on energy use and other environmental ‘bads’, and reducing them on labour and income, would have both climate and economic benefits.

At a time when all the talk is of the need for massive cuts in expenditure, in the Budget on 22 April 2009, the UK Government managed to find some extra money to help control climate change.

UK Chancellor of the Exchequer, Alistair Darling, today gave his pre-budget report to parliament. This included some good climate measures.

The Finance Ministers of the G20 economies met over the weekend in Scotland. UK Prime Minister Brown, who attended the meeting, won headlines for his support for a tax on financial transactions, the so-called Tobin Tax. However, Brown did not win support, notably from the US, and the finance ministers made no significant progress on low-carbon finance.

This article reviews the climate performance of different US states and is mainly based on Climate Change 101: state action published by the Pew Centre on Global Climate Change and on State of the States 2008: Renewable Energy Development and the Role of Policy published by the US Department of Energy’s Renewable Energy Laboratory.

President Barack Obama recently set out a stimulus package for the ailing American economy. In it, $80 billion was earmarked for the use of furthering renewable energy usage and other measures to promote a low carbon economy.

Despite the grim economic context, the UK Government managed to find some extra money to help control climate change.