To reach net zero emissions by 2050, the UK needs strong action across the whole economy. We have many of the technologies we need already, and we will need to make more use of nuclear and renewable power. But it is not yet clear how we will, for instance, stop emissions from agriculture, including from livestock. We will need to make significant investments, but the returns will be huge, not just in terms of avoided climate change impacts, but also new opportunities for innovative UK businesses serving the growing global demand for zero-emissions technologies. A zero-emissions economy will be cleaner, smarter and more efficient, ensuring prosperity and wellbeing for current and future generations.
Guardian 21st April 2019 read more »
Boris Johnson: Dear Extinction Rebellion: your aims are worthy, but take your pink boat to China instead.
Telegraph 21st April 2019 read more »
Business leaders have voiced their support for Extinction Rebellion, the environmental protest group that shut down parts of London last week, calling for an “urgent redesign” of global industry in a letter to The Times. Paul Polman, who was chief executive of Unilever for a decade until January, is one of 21 executives who have written in support of the activists’ call to action on climate change. The group also includes Dale Vince, founder of Ecotricity, the green energy provider, and Chris Davis, director of corporate social responsibility at The Body Shop. “The multimillion-pound costs that the Extinction Rebellion protests have imposed on business are regrettable, as is the inconvenience to Londoners,” the group write. “But future costs imposed on our economies by the climate emergency will be many orders of magnitude greater.” The business leaders say that a new platform called Extinction Rebellion Business is being launched. Bosses, investors and corporate advisers will meet activists to discuss how companies can counter climate change.
Times 22nd April 2019 read more »
Brian Monteith: The call for action would see the way we go about our lives change beyond all recognition and consign to distant memory the standard of living that has been achieved for the masses. Without uber-green policies are we really about to become extinct? Ever since I developed any political awareness, or sense of community and history – going right back to watching the news of President Kennedy’s death on television and how upset my parents were by that, or being taught Scots Wha Hae in primary class along with hymns and psalms – I have heard and lived through warnings of our impending doom. Today’s demonstrators appear to think it is something new, but I can assure them it is not. The regular testing of police box air raid sirens would remind my generation when still in our shorts how we might all be turned to ash if Soviet nuclear bombers or intercontinental ballistic missiles dropped the Bomb on us.
Scotsman 22nd April 2019 read more »
