Vision

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Greener Vision applies insights from The Tabula Project to the challenge of tackling the climate crisis

The global average temperature continues its relentless rise. 2024 was the hottest year on record, and the first year that the average global temperature exceeded 1.5°C above its pre-industrial level [i]. However, our response to the climate crisis falls far short of the scale of the challenge. Transport is the fastest growing source of global greenhouse emissions and the UK’s biggest polluting sector.

We won’t solve our most intractable problems with the same thinking that created them. The Tabula Project aims to provide a new perspective on the mind so we might improve how we think and evolve as a society. In applying insights from The Tabula Project to climate change, Greener Vision recommends a more open self-reflective approach to net zero policy, and a radical shift for decarbonising transport.

Change is possible but we must start with ourselves

 

Greener Vision: The Art of Seeing investigates ways in which our approach to the climate crisis needs to change. How can we prevent short-term thinking and political expediency from driving critical decision making?

We won’t solve anthropogenic climate change with the same mindset that created it. An honest appraisal of the assumptions underpinning decision making on net zero leads us to conclude that the current paradigm is not fit for purpose. If we are to build a new paradigm that would enable us to rise to the scale of the challenge, we must identify and remove the main barriers to progress.

The report recommends that we embrace more holistic thinking and an approach that creates unity rather than division.

Our world is fragmented, disordered and chaotic. Anthropogenic climate change has grown to become our greatest existential threat.

Extreme weather, record breaking heatwaves, lethal flooding, wildfires and typhoons are now the deadly norm. Millions of people are struggling with the fatal impacts of worsening extreme heat. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres describes extreme weather as “the new abnormal, tearing through economies, widening inequalities, undermining the world’s Sustainable Development Goals and killing people”. [ii]

‘Policy as usual’ will not achieve net zero. The stark reality is that even as the global average temperature continues on its relentless upward trajectory, greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise. This is where our current thinking has got us. We need a radical shift in approach. A coherent response to the climate crisis will require holistic thinking and an approach that creates unity rather than division.

Climate policy should be underpinned by five key Pillars of Unity:

Firstly, we should seek to see the whole picture. We need to become more honest and self-aware about our decision-making. Are the assumptions underpinning our response to the climate crisis fit for purpose? We are part of the problem if we persist with the illusion that ‘business as usual’ will achieve net zero.

We need to find ways effectively to engage our emotional brains in climate change. Rational scientific data loses out against a compelling emotional story that speaks to people’s values. Better integration of thoughts and feelings will be critical. This is a battle for hearts and minds.

We need a radical realignment of how we perceive ourselves in relation to the environment on which we depend. We must strive to be at one with nature and connect with our natural empathy and respect for all living species. We need fairer and more equitable economic systems that allow humans and the environment to thrive.

Too much attention is given to treating symptoms and not enough to the system. We need a whole systems transition to net zero. Healing the whole system means addressing the root causes of our problems. If we are to tackle the root cause of climate change, we must address our addiction to fossil fuels.

We should strive to become citizens of ‘One World’. Climate change is a global intergenerational problem requiring unprecedented levels of cooperation. More than 8 out of 10 people globally want to see their countries set aside geopolitical differences and work together on climate change [iii]

Climate change has the potential to destroy the world as we know it. But it is also one issue that could bring us together and help us overcome our historic divisions.

Changing behaviour changing how we think

 

Greener Vision: Pathways to Net Zero  calls for a paradigm shift in terms of how we think about decarbonising transport.

The UK is not on track to achieve its 2030 target of a 68% reduction in emissions. The easy wins of decarbonising the power sector have happened. Very little progress has been made in sectors where people need to make changes in their own lives. Transport is the UK’s biggest polluting sector.

Pathways to Net Zero draws on extensive research and thought leadership to identify what would be a credible framework for decarbonising transport and builds further on The Pillars of Unity. Achieving net zero will require new thinking, creative solutions and systemic change.

We need a radical shift for decarbonising transport. Urgent focus must be given to behaviour change.

Emissions from road transport – 95% of the UK’s transport total – have hardly changed since 1990. Improvements to the efficiency of new vehicles have been largely offset by the trend to larger vehicles and rising demand. According to the Climate Change Committee the annual reduction in surface transport emissions needs to quadruple in this decade [iv].

However, decades of car-centric planning mean that delivering any traffic reduction will require system wide changes. The Pathways to Net Zero thought leadership programme concluded that we need a whole systems approach to net zero with energy demand reduction at its core. We must price properly for carbon whilst ensuring a fair and just transition, and we must strengthen delivery across the UK [v].

Public buy-in for climate policies is essential. We need an informed national public conversation.

Progress depends on enabling people to act together. Political expediency won’t get us to net zero. The reasons for climate policies are as important as the policies themselves and need to be communicated clearly and consistently [vi]. Otherwise, politicians will struggle to gain the mandate they need to take difficult decisions. Lack of public trust in climate policies can lead to a backlash [vii].

It is important to get the tone of the discussion right. We must avoid polarization and ideological thinking. Decarbonisation will require a shift away from a car-based culture. But too often the debate is centred on cars being ‘good’ or ‘bad’ and becomes alienating. Linking the narrative on net zero to the public health emergency of air pollution resonates better with the public.

We need to think and act in a global context for the long term.

The cumulative impact of decisions made for short-term self-interest is putting huge strain on our ecological system and leading to irreversible changes [viii]. We must put an end to economic short-termism and prioritize growth according to its contribution to the Sustainable Development Goals rather than linear GDP. These 17 interconnected goals aspire to sustainably increase global prosperity, equality and well-being [ix].

A fair and just transition must be at the heart of change. The onus should be on wealthier countries to decarbonise more quickly than poorer ones. Pricing properly for carbon is a fundamental building block, but a fair and just transition means addressing the inequalities this can create. The overall impact of a carbon tax doesn’t have to be regressive as its revenue can be returned to households in ways that promote progressivity [x].

To achieve real and lasting change we need to start with ourselves.

People need to be appealed to as citizens not just as consumers. People will willingly shoulder a burden – even one that requires short term sacrifice against uncertain long-term threats – provided they share a common purpose and are rewarded with a greater sense of social belonging [xi]. However, they require proof that others are contributing before they themselves will act [xii].

The central proposition of Greener Vision: Pathways to Net Zero is that policy as usual will not achieve net zero. We must start with ourselves. Our social and economic structures are a product of our way of thinking. Systemic change is a deeply personal endeavour. “Our future is unwritten. It will be shaped by who we choose to be now” [Christiana Figueres & Tom Rivett-Carnac [xiii]].

We need new thinking, creative solutions and systemic change. Climate policy should be informed by five key Pillars of Unity.

THE PILLARS OF UNITY – Principles for a greener future 

 

I – We need to strive to see the ‘whole picture’.

II – Better ‘integration of thoughts and feelings’ would improve decision making.

III – We must respect the ‘unity of the biosphere’ and seek to be at one with nature.

IV – We should seek to heal the ‘whole system’ by tackling root causes of climate change.

V – We need to become citizens of ‘One World’.

REFERENCES


[i] https://climate.copernicus.eu/copernicus-2024-first-year-exceed-15degc-above-pre-industrial-level

[ii] https://www.climatechangenews.com/2024/07/25/un-chief-appeals-for-global-action-to-tackle-deadly-extreme-heat/

[iii] https://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2024-06-20-80-percent-people-globally-want-stronger-climate-action-governments-according-new

[iv] https://www.theccc.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Progress-in-reducing-emissions-2024-Report-to-Parliament-Web.pdf

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

[vi] Gregory Bateson, Sacred Unity: Further steps to an ecology of mind, Harper Collins, 1991

[vii] Rebecca Willis, Too Hot to Handle? The Democratic Challenge of Climate Change Bristol University Press 2020

[viii] https://www.clubofrome.org/publication/the-limits-to-growth/

[ix] https://sdgs.un.org/goals

[x] Impacts of a carbon tax across US household income groups: What are the equity-efficiency trade-offs? L.H. Goulder et al, May 2019

[xi] George Marshall, Don’t Even Think About It: Why Our Brains Are Wired to Ignore Climate Change, Bloomsbury USA, 2014

[xii] Robert Cialdini, Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, Collins Business Essentials, first published 1984

[xiii] The Future We Choose: Christiana Figueres and Tom Rivett-Carnac, published by Manilla Press, 2020