There now seems to be agreement that the world is warming up and that something needs to be done about it. But change seems slow in coming... We've got broad buy-in from politicians, companies and increasingly the public. That's a positive thing. The next opportunity is getting the behaviour, policies and legislation to match. You can't talk about solutions until you have been through the first bit. This year and next will be crucial in determining the future of life on earth – the stakes are that high. We have a decade really to avoid the worst effects of global warming.
What should we be doing as individuals? Pretty much everyone has control over how much energy we use. It's about behaviour, reducing car and energy use, turning off appliances on stand-by, going for the most efficient models when you buy a new cooker or fridge, changing to low energy light bulbs. You can change your electrical supplier – Good Energy, is the one I use. They provide green electricity. You may pay a bit more, but if you are energy efficient the bills will be much the same.
To many people it's all very daunting – easier to hide your head under the duvet... It's important that we don't see this as an agenda of pain, but of economic modernisation and increasing the quality of life. There are huge opportunities for clean technologies and job creation. If we can do that we'll be able to show it is possible to have comfortable lives that don't damage the environment. I'm optimistic for the future. We've been through these discussions with the ozone layer in the late 1980s. In pretty short order a deal was done which hopefully will solve the whole problem. The scale of this is much bigger and broader but that doesn't make it less do-able. With human creativity and ingenuity we should easily rise to the challenge.
Obviously we can't do it on our own... We need government intervention to make it easy and cheap and convenient for everyone to go green. We need regulations requiring manufacturers to make more efficient cars. All applicances should be efficient, not just some of them. We're expecting to see a climate bill in March and then there will be a period of intense campaigning to shape it into something useful. Our Big Ask Campaign is calling for government to reduce emissions by three per cent each year, year on year. That is what the latest science says we have to do. You can go to the Big Ask campaign on our website and find out how to contact your MP to make a it political as well as personal.
It's depressing to see countries politicking over something this important... It's no good telling India and China 'we all have to go green but not until you do'. They point out quite rightly that the climate change happening now has been caused by pollution from industrialised countries. Telling them they can't have development is a pointless political message. We've got to show leadership and willingness to change. China doesn't want to be polluted and suffer climate change. We can build up clean technologies and offer them to China.
How long before these technologies come on line? All the things we need from bicycles to hydrogen fuel cells have already been invented. Carbon capture [where carbon emissions are caught from the atmosphere and buried] need to be scaled up and super-efficient coal-fired power stations are nearly ready. The trouble is how quickly they're being brought into use.
A lot of actions people are taking at the moment seem more symbolic than practical... There's scepticism, rightly, with offsetting schemes [where people plant a tree to compensate for the carbon produced by their flight] and the signal they send out that we can carry on the way we always have. That's not the case. Flying is a big challenge we have to face up to. One symbolic thing I'd like to see government do is ban plastic bags. It's something everyone can relate to and would help galvanise the public and make people pay more attention to the bigger issues.