The annual UN Climate Change Conference took place in Mexico at the end of last year and its highest praise was that it was less disappointing than previous years. The problem for climate-change campaigners is the reluctance of countries to make firm commitments to reducing carbon emissions. A major reason for this reluctance is economics. If economics is a cause of the problems, can it also be a solution?
A wide-held belief remains that the science of climate change is still under debate. In fact, the majority of scientists now agree that greenhouse gasses, mainly the result of human activity, are causing global warming. Politicians, at least the ones in developed and emerging economies, agree with the scientists and publically express their desire to act.
Whether or not the public makes the direct connection between energy consumption and extreme weather conditions, I believe most people may reasonably come to the conclusion that today’s lifestyle is unsustainable.
That lifestyle is the product of a century of social progress, fuelled by fossils where our true energy consumption is largely hidden. We tend to think of our own energy consumption simply in terms of what we directly use. What car we drive, whether we leave the TV on standby, how many flights we take a year – that type of thing. These are important, but in the modern economy, virtually everything we touch has a huge carbon price tag. A modern polyester fleece jacket, for example, has a carbon footprint more than forty times the weight of the jacket itself.
‘The solution is to balance the needs of a choking planet with the needs of the global economy and the billions who depend on it’
Go back a hundred years and the average gentleman’s wardrobe would have just a few tweed and cotton garments. They would probably be produced locally by hand and, with care and attention, would last for years. The carbon footprint of such a wardrobe is minute. In comparison, today’s wardrobes are stuffed full of virtually disposable clothing, rich in oil-based man-made fibres (like the polyester fleece) that are shipped back and forth around the world before, during and after manufacture.
