Citizens' Climate Lobby UK

Category: Blog

  • Motivating Energy Reduction

    Motivating Energy Reduction

    In my last post, I wrote about how we would be more inclined to fight climate change if we focused on an immediate threat we could see: pollution. However, acting to reduce consumption only on obviously polluted days is just not enough to make a meaningful dent in UK emissions. In reality, the air in all but the most densely populated urban areas of the country is mostly clean. Given this, we need to be more proactive than reactive, working to lessen our energy usage on a daily basis. But, as usual, each time we read an article on climate change and turn off a lightbulb somewhere in our home, we’ll have forgotten the whole thing an hour later.

    This is where motivational science comes back in – to answer the question of how we can keep ourselves focused day-to-day. An obvious response might be “money.” If we show people how much money they are saving per month when they reduce their usage, they will change their behaviours to meet those goals. Unfortunately, energy is so cheap that any change is really inconsequential to our budgets. However, research from a number of behavioural psychologists such as Inside the Nudge Unit author David Halpern leads us to another potential answer: feedback, and lots of it.

    Imagine this: instead of using a speedometer in your car, you get a monthly printout of your average speed for the past four or so weeks. You would only have a vague sense of when you were speeding, and would probably end up going faster a lot more frequently. It’s hard not to, with no immediate feedback on the dashboard. This is how we use electricity in our homes – blindly. We have very little sense of how much electricity our devices use. Sometimes, we even forget that certain things use electricity; according to the American energy.gov site, disconnected phone chargers require 0.26 watts while chargers connected to fully-charged phones use 2.24 watts.

    So, what should we do? Luckily, energy companies are rolling out smart meters that show live displays of energy usage. Even better, every home in the UK will be offered one (for free!) by 2020. All you need to do is to display it prominently. Then, you can begin challenging yourself in real time to reduce consumption.

  • Pollution: Climate Change You Can See

    Pollution: Climate Change You Can See

    How can we make people care about climate change? Do we show them polar bears perched atop wobbly icebergs? Do we warn them about melting glaciers in Greenland? This seems to work, at least while we’re having the discussion. But then, they forget. They go back to their old ways. Ultimately, humans simply don’t have the mental energy to deal with this abstract, future threat.

    American conservation scientist M. Sanjayan has taken a keen interest in studying these issues. What can we do in the face of this well-meaning, but ultimately useless approach? Fortunately, he has an idea that has worked before.

    “We’ve faced enormous, scary climate issues before. Remember the hole in the ozone layer? As insurmountable as that seemed in the 1970’s and 80’s, we were able to wrap our heads around that and take action. People got this very simple, easy to understand, concrete image of this protective layer around the earth, kind of like a roof protecting us in this case from ultraviolet light (which, by the way, has the direct health consequence of potentially giving you skin cancer). Then, they came up with this fabulous term, “the ozone hole.” Terrible problem, great term.” People also got a concrete image of how we ended up with this problem; for decades chlorofluorocarbons (or CFCs) were a main ingredient in a lot of products like aerosol spray cans. Then, when scientists discovered that CFCs were actually destroying the atmospheric ozone, people could look at their own hairspray and say “do I want to destroy the planet because of my hairspray?” So, what’s interesting is that sales of hairspray and those kinds of products started dropping quite dramatically. People listened to scientists and took action, and now scientists predict that the hole in the ozone layer will be healed by around 2050.” – M. Sanjayan, VOX

    Sanjayan then goes on to discuss climate change, saying that if we had a concrete image – if we could see climate change – then we’d do something.

    The thing is, we can see climate change. At least, in a way.

    Throughout the UK and particularly in the Greater London Area, air pollution is a hot topic. Moreover, as capital-dwellers will tell you, we can both see and feel it, particularly on any high air-pollution alert day. As a recent resident of Beijing and Hong Kong, I can affirm that it only gets worse. More importantly, air pollution and climate change are intricately linked, as many compounds that are considered as pollution also count as greenhouse gases (CO2, nitrous oxide, ozone, and so on).

    Pollution is not a future threat, like climate change. It is affecting you now. According to the Guardian, air pollution kills 9 million around the world annually (more than 5 times as many as car accidents), with that figure set to rise. So, why not focus first on fighting pollution? The actions necessary, such as limiting vehicular emissions and transitioning from fossil fuel power sources (which can be done through Carbon Fee & Dividend!) will do equal work in fighting climate change down the road.

    (The following photos I took while hiking show a clear difference – a difference you can see, and act on!)

    Hong Kong on a clear day:

    Hong Kong on a smoggy day:

  • Renewable power set to be cheaper by 2020

    Renewable power set to be cheaper by 2020


    Investment company, Goldman Sachs’ recent research forecasts renewable energy to be cheaper than other forms of power by 2020.

    Alberto Gandolfi, from Goldman Sachs Research said,

    What started as a decarbonisation process – thanks to better technology – is about to become a process driven by costs and the economics.

    This sounds like more proof that Carbon Fee and Dividend will work. CF&D would drive up the price of fossil fuel and their products and speed up the consumer switch to clean – and now cheaper – alternatives.

    It would also give investors confidence that divesting in fossil fuel and investing in the alternatives is the clever move.

    The resulting fall in carbon dioxide levels would be a big win for the climate and our planet.

    Which begs another question: why is the UK forging ahead with a new nuclear reactor when the cost of renewable power is falling and the technology is coming on in leaps and bounds?

    Written by Louisa Davison, 29 August 2017
    Views expressed here not necessarily shared by Citizens Climate Lobby.