A call to action on climate change has been issued by a Senior Policy Advisor at independent think tank Green Alliance who declared at the recent Building Zero Carbon Britain, “the UK is not on track to meet its 4th and 5th carbon budgets to 2032, and the gap is even bigger if we consider the need to get to net zero by 2050.”

Caterina Brandmayr said that, although the UK is the first major economy to have passed a law to mandate a zero-carbon target, it has yet to pass the laws required to implement the target. She laid out five ways in which the UK could move closer to its commitments. [emaillocker id=”71749″]

Bringing forward the ban on new petrol and diesel from 2040 to 2030, was the first policy suggested by Brandmayr. She cited the precedent of the Netherlands and Norway who have both set the more ambitious target of 2025 and argued that it “will not only reduce carbon emissions but will help the UK automotive industry by creating a domestic market for electric cars.”

This will require a major infrastructure overhaul to enable electric cars, and Brandmayr raised the need for make sure electric vehicles are “integrated into the grid.”

The second policy proposal raised by Brandmayr was to improve the UK’s resource efficiency, particularly singling out the built environment for improvement: “Construction is one of the biggest sectors where there’s opportunities to use better design, low carbon materials and re-use to cut emissions.”

Brandmayr proposed a programme of Government support for mass home efficiency improvements. She advised learning from the success of the Energiesprong design principles in Netherlands. Brandmayr connected this to adoption of Modern Method of Construction: “It relies on new technology like off-side building and mass customisation.”

Land use is another area raised by Brandmayr, summarising that “we really need to plant many more trees and to expand green spaces across the built environment.”

The final proposal suggested by Brandmayr was perhaps the simplest. The UK needs to invest more in renewable energy.  The recent price improvements to renewable generation were portrayed by Brandmayr as enabling factors: “We need to make a much better use of energy generation. Solar power and off-shore wind are now the cheapest forms of energy generation.”

The UK faces a historic turning point with the climate crisis, and whether or not the nation rises to overcome it will depend on the adoption of carbon-saving policies such as these.

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