We must find new ways of living: New pleasant ways of living that do not destroy our planet..
#6 Car-free cities are cheaper
n 1992, Carlo Ripa di Meana was the European Commission Environment Commissioner. He called for cities to be free of cars he said he was ready to become car-less, and so should other city dwellers, to prevent Europe’s cities being choked by the internal combustion engine.
He publicised a study he had commissioned showing that it would cost between 2 and 5 times less to live and work in car-free cities because of the savings people could make in not having cars to buy, park, insure and maintain.
Based on these observations, Carlo RIPA di MEANA, the European Environment Commissioner, has had a study carried out on car-free cities in an attempt to find the answer to the following question: Is it possible, and if so to what extent, to conceive of a city which will operate more efficiently than the type of cities we have at present, using alternative means of transport to the private car?
The answer provided by the study is positive, even in purely financial terms: the car-free city costs between two and five times less (the costs varying depending on the population density of the city).
This is a summary of a series of posts on housing from my site dontlooknow.org . When I have the energy and time I will rework these posts.
Personal remaining carbon budget: 64 tonnes CO2e
There is an important consideration that should be a precursor to this series: A representative remaining carbon budget. My judgement is that if humans emit more than 64 tonnes of greenhouse gasses each – measured as carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e), horrid things will happen.
A few years ago I asked Andy Haldane, the Chief Economist at the Bank of England what would happen if there were to be an increased supply of cheap housing. He kindly replied
If additional housing supply was to cause sharp declines in house prices, this might raise concerns about the adequacy of mortgage lenders’ capital positions and hence raise financial stability concerns. Some insurance against this risk is provided by banks’ own credit risk model calibrations and regulatory stress which consider severe levels of stress in the housing market, both of which are used to set banks’ level of capital.
We intend to conduct a further, housing market related stress test of UK banks later this year.
We must find new ways of living: New pleasant ways of living that do not destroy Planet A.
This requires a new form of town planning. Today’s town planning may be a starting point but a new, wider discipline is needed to make radical changes to the way we live. The idea was outlined in an earlier post, Enhanced Town Planning.
Here are the first five topics for the new discipline. More to follow.
#1 A reference target for personal remaining carbon budget: 64 tonnes CO2e
A remaining carbon budget is the quantity of greenhouse gases that can be emitted before a global climate disaster occurs. This note estimates a reference budget: a quantity of emissions to be used as an indicator of the success or failure of the global climate policies.
If we keep within this budget, we are doing well: Exceed it and we are doing badly.
I believe that the Committee on Climate Change (CCC) is beginning to take climate change more seriously than hitherto. I look forward to your upcoming report.
I have welcomed the work of the committee in commissioning estimates of the UK’s carbon emissions on a consumption basis. This is the correct measure for evaluating climate policy.
Estimating carbon emissions on a territorial or production basis is misleading. This measure ignores emissions from shipping, aviation and imports. The claim that the UK is a ‘climate leader’ cannot honestly be made on the basis of production emissions: Shut a steel works and replace the steel with imports makes territorial emissions lower but will likely increases global emissions.
I intended to respond to the Zero carbon economy: Call for Evidence from the UK Committee on Climate Change (CCC) but after a few weeks of being bedridden (nothing life-threatening), I missed the 7th December deadline. Having worked on preparation that I did not want to waste I have written this note.
Summary:
The Climate Change Act (2008) measures greenhouse gas emissions incorrectly.
This shows UK emissions falling sharply but ignores aviation, shipping and imports.
UK emissions, measured properly, are falling far too slowly.
Per person UK greenhouse gas emissions are nearly twice the global average.
To keep the global temperature rise to less than 1.5°C, there is a limit to global emissions – the remaining carbon budget.
At the current rate, global emissions will exhaust this budget in 12.7 years.
Unless emissions from production can be reduced quickly, consumption must be reduced.
That means #degrowth.
Most greenhouse gas emissions are caused by the affluent.
To save the climate, the affluent must consume less.
We need to find pleasant lifestyles that are climate friendly, which can attract world wide support.
A new disciplineis necessary … enhanced town planning.
The UK government’s climate brief has passed from an environmental department, DEFRA, to a business department, the Department of Business, Energy and Information Services BEIS.
BEIS is not serious about climate, promoting economic growth and fracking.
BEIS is the sponsoring department of the CCC.
The CCC must be freed from its sponsoring department, BEIS.
I have reluctantly got used to the terms “existential crisis” and “dystopia”. Also, I remember the embarrassment from Kenneth Tynan saying the F-word on TV in 1965 but describing the state we’re in needs more than polysyllabic words. So …
We’re fucked We’ve fucked the planet We live crap lives.
If there’s hope, it’s that our crap lives could be less crap: happier and less polluting.
It may be presumptuous to comment on anything Greta Thunberg says but here she gives an excellent example of how the affluent are destroying the climate – even the more well-meaning ones.
It beats the boring numbers below. I have struggled to make what follows both simple and clear so first here is a summary:
Consumption causes greenhouse gas emissions
Greenhouse gas emissions cause climate change
Climate change means consumption must be reduced
The affluent consume far more than the poor
The affluent must reduce their enormous consumption
The poor should be supported
There is an appendix on worries about the state of climate science.
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