Every day...

We do any number of things without being aware of the greenhouse gases that are given off as we do them…

Each morning we have a shower, go downstairs, put on the kettle for a cuppa, the toaster, cooker or microwave. We switch on the radio and any number of hand-held devices, in preparation for the day ahead.

We drive to work, to the shops, to see friends, go to the cinema, club or gym.

We get back home, switch on the lights, watch TV, put on the washing machine and surf the internet without even thinking about the heating being on, the hot water in our taps, the streetlights outside our homes.

We go away for the weekend or take a much-deserved holiday.

The Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC) released a new energy calculator for consultation last July. The tool, 2050 Pathways, demonstrated the alternative ways to meet the governments current emission target (of an 80% cut in emissions by 2050), and will be one source of evidence used to determine the UK’s new carbon budget for 2023 - 2027.

CAT responded to the consultation period with an adapted calculator that integrated the key areas in zerocarbonbritain2030 that were not considered in DECC’s tool. A brief summary of our consultation can be found here, or CAT’s full response can be downloaded from here.

In March DECC concluded the consultation with the 2050 Pathways Analysis, along with a new ‘2050 Web Tool’. The updated calculator is still less ambitions than zerocarbonbritain2030, but it has increased parameters such as more potential for offshore wind, and allows, as our zerocarbonbritain2030 team discovered, to get to ‘zero’ without the need for new nuclear.

See if you can get to zero emissions without using new nuclear, CCS or Clean Coal on DECC’s My 2050 game, and quote zerocarbonbritain2030 in your reasoning to DECC.

zerocarbonbritain2030 is featured in Guardian today. The report features in George Monbiot's column about the future direction of the environmental movement.

"We could, as Zero Carbon Britain envisages, become carbon-free by 2030. Growth then ensures that we have to address the problem all over again by 2050, 2070 and thereon after."

Read the full article here.

A new 8 page summary of zerocarbonbritain2030 is available for download. The summary covers every area of the full report and gives a brief overview of the key points from each section. The document is ideal if you need a quick introduction to the full report, or if you need an overview of everything covered.

You can download the summary document from the link below