Greener Vision: Consultation 2024

Our world is on fire.  2023 was the hottest year on record.  This year a record 15 national heat records have been broken so far^[1]. We are facing an unprecedented number of heat-related deaths, wildfires and extreme weather events. But our response to the climate crisis falls far short of the scale of the challenge.

How can we approach climate policy differently?  How can we prevent short-term thinking and political expediency from driving critical decision making?

This consultation builds on the conclusions from ‘The Art of Seeing’^[2] which argues that we won’t solve our most difficult problems with the same thinking that created them.  We need to embrace a more open and self-reflective approach, which starts with an honest appraisal of how we look at the problem.

Greener Vision: Consultation 2024 will explore how we can develop more holistic thinking and an approach that creates unity rather than division.  The starting point is that policy should be informed by five key ‘Pillars of Unity’:

1. We should strive to ‘see the whole picture’.
2. Better ‘integration of thoughts and feelings’ would improve decision making.
3. We must respect the ‘unity of the biosphere’ and be at one with nature.
4. We should ‘heal the whole system’ by tackling root causes of climate change.
5. We need to become citizens of ‘One World’.

In developing the ‘Pillars of Unity’, Greener Vision drew on discussions with more than 700 politicians and leading stakeholders on decarbonising transport.  The current approach has achieved little progress in more than 30 years.  Increased road traffic has largely offset improvements in vehicle fuel efficiency and the switch to electric vehicles.

We cannot rely on clean technologies alone.  Traffic reduction will also be needed.  To deliver this, the Pathways to Net Zero thought leadership programme concluded that we need a whole systems transition to net zero and a paradigm shift in terms of how we think about decarbonising transport^[3].

Far steeper emissions cuts are required to avert a future dominated by catastrophic climate impacts.

This crisis calls for leadership, strong political consensus and unprecedented levels of cooperation.

To achieve real and lasting change, we must start with ourselves.

[1] https://www.theguardian.com/environment/article/2024/aug/14/unprecedented-number-of-heat-records-broken-around-world-this-year

[2] https://greener-vision.com/publication/greener-vision-the-art-of-seeing/

[3] https://greener-vision.com/publication/pathways-to-net-zero-series-of-reports-and-roundtable-discussions/