This week the Committee on Climate Change, which advises the British government on carbon, said that a global agreement must be reached to cap carbon dioxide emissions from air travel at or below 2005 levels by 2050.

Plane problem

The advice puts further pressure on the Government to change its' decision about expanding Heathrow airport. If the decision is not reversed other parts of the economy will face even greater carbon reductions. In effect this means that people who either cannot afford to fly or choose not will be subsidizing those who are able to fly. 

This poses two difficult questions for a Labour government. The first is how can a Government with socialist principles justify penalizing poorer sections of the community to enable the wealthier to fly at a subsidized rate? The second is why should the aviation industry operate to a different set of rules? Weasel words will be required to wriggle around this dilemma.

EcoTeams

On Saturday we ran our first ever large-scale EcoTeam training event in London. We have a significant amount of evidence that EcoTeams can deliver significant and long-term environmental change. 

However, we know that global carbon emissions need to be stabilised by 2015. Fast and substantial action is needed. In response to this we are seeking to run large-scale community training events bringing together people who want to act as Ecoteam volunteer leaders.

The London event attracted just over 50 volunteers. Their challenge now is to recruit at least 300 friends and neighbours to participate in Ecoteams. I think that they will succeed. 

The first set of volunteers came from a diverse range of backgrounds but were all driven by the desire to do something practical and positive within their community. There was a real energy and buzz in the room which we hope will be translated into real environmental savings. Two more days have been arranged in Bristol and Leeds.

Changing behaviour

On Thursday I spoke at a conference attended by around 100 delegates which looked at how best to encourage people to change their behaviour for environmental and social benefit. The fact that so many people attended demonstrates that this topic is very much flavour of the month suggesting that Tipping Point and Nudge may have been high up the summer reading list of many civil servants.

What the conference clearly demonstrated is that there is a lot of evidence about what initiatives don't work and precious little about what does work. One of the companies doing a lot of research in this area is Brook Lyndhurst. Their CEO had the difficult after-lunch speaker spot which he filled brilliantly. I particularly like his story about the masochist who loved have freezing cold showers in the morning, so he had hot ones instead.

The role of charities

On Tuesday we brought together the four charities who we have been working with to help them embed climate change policies into their activities.  The charities were British Red Cross, RNIB, Equinox Care and Friends of the Elderly. 

The charities vary enormously and their response to the project differed considerably. The two smaller charities have involved their trustees and Senior Management team in the discussion and I believe are on their way to significant change, RNIB has concentrated mainly on the internal changes that they can make and the British Red Cross has looked at the issue more strategically.

What was interesting was the lack of direct pressures on the charities to change. Only one of them was noticing changing requirements from their key clients and only one of them will be effected by the Carbon Reduction Commitment. Without these drivers I am sure change across the sector will continue to be slow.