The Economical Environmentalist – Prashant Vaze HB ISBN: 9781844078073, Dimensions 240X159mm Live Area, 32Mm Spine, 18Mm Bleed
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The Economical Environmentalist – Prashant Vaze HB ISBN: 9781844078073, dimensions 240x159mm live area, 32mm spine, 18mm bleed ‘This is an exhilarating read, written with pace and THE passion and full of creative solutions on the big ENVIRONMENTALIST ECONOMICAL issues of environmental sanity and social justice.’ Ed Mayo, Chief Executive of Co-operatives UK ‘[Vaze] shows how a low-carbon life can be a rich, rewarding, high-enjoyment thing to aim for.’ Prashant Vaze Chris Smith, Chairman of Environment Agency ‘This is a really excellent book: practical, optimistic and honest. Everyone should read it.’ THE Stephen Tindale, Climate and Energy Consultant, former Executive Director Greenpeace UK ‘We need to cut our emissions here in the UK by 40 per cent in the next ten years … In this excellent book, Prashant Vaze provides us with a very ECONOMICAL practical assessment of what needs to be done. He successfully bridges the gap between high level analysis and everyday living.’ David Kennedy, Chief Executive of the Committee on Climate Change Environmentalist Reducing your carbon emissions in an economic downturn can be challenging, but saving the planet doesn’t have to cost you more. The author is an environmental economist trying to live a low-carbon life in London. So far My Attempt to Live so good. But he has kids. A family to visit in India. A hectic job. In distilling and building on his own experience of trying to live a low carbon life, he helps us navigate the choices a Low-Carbon Life that confront us all – families, singletons, pensioners – when making decisions about what to eat, what to buy, how to travel and how to keep warm in the era of climate change and and What It Cost economic turmoil. He works out the sums and lets us know which choices will make the biggest difference, and which are false savings. His book is an irreverent but seriously rigorous reference guide to low-cost, low-carbon living for everyone – in any location – in tough times. It’s brimming with up-to-date information on current and future technologies, tips and ideas for every budget on how to spend the least for the biggest carbon reduction, and insight from the experiences of people trying to live low-carbon lives. Vaze Prashant Prashant Vaze is the Chief Economist at Consumer Focus. He is a member of advisory boards of the Office for National Statistics, the Energy Savings Trust and the Office of Fair Trading. Previously he has worked in the UK’s Office of Climate Change, the Prime Minister’s Strategy Unit and the Department of the Environment. ‘An excellent book for www.earthscan.co.uk Climate Change / Ethical Living anyone genuinely interested in reducing their own emissions.’ Earthscan strives to minimize its impact on the environment Cover photo by Julius Honnor NicHOlaS STERN The Economical Environmentalist The Economical Environmentalist My Attempt to Live a Low-Carbon Life and What it Cost Prashant Vaze publishing for a sustainable future London • Sterling, VA First published by Earthscan in the UK and USA in 2009 Copyright © Prashant Vaze, 2009 All rights reserved ISBN: 978-1-84407-807-3 hardback 978-1-84407-808-0 paperback Typeset by Safehouse Creative Cover design by Rob Watts All calculations in this book can be replicated using the greenhouse gas calculator at www.economicalenvironmentalist.co.uk For a full list of publications please contact: Earthscan Dunstan House 14a St Cross St London, EC1N 8XA, UK Tel: +44 (0)20 7841 1930 Fax: +44 (0)20 7242 1474 Email: [email protected] Web: www.earthscan.co.uk 22883 Quicksilver Drive, Sterling, VA 20166-2012, USA Earthscan publishes in association with the International Institute for Environment and Development A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Vaze, Prashant. The economical environmentalist : my attempt to live a low-carbon life and what it cost / Prashant Vaze. p. cm. Includes index. ISBN 978-1-84407-807-3 (hbk.) -- ISBN 978-1-84407-808-0 (pbk.) 1. Sustainable living--Economic aspects. 2. Environmentalism--Economic aspects. 3. Carbon offsetting--Social aspects. 4. Green movement--Economic aspects. I. Title. GE196.V39 2009 333.72092--dc22 2009018126 At Earthscan we strive to minimize our environmental impacts and carbon footprint through reducing waste, recycling and offsetting our CO2 emissions, including those created through publication of this book. For more details of our environ- mental policy, see www.earthscan.co.uk This book was printed in the UK by MPG Books, an ISO 14001 accredited company. The paper used is FSC certified. I dedicate this book to Ayeisha and Satish. You so often see with disarming clarity what needs to be done. Sorry about the state we’re leaving the place in; please don’t hold it against us when you pay for our pensions. The Economical Environmentalist Contents List of figures, tables and boxes ix Preface xv Acknowledgements xvii 1 Introduction 1 Why read this book 3 Characters in this book 4 The gap between caring about climate change and doing something 6 How to read this book 10 2 The Economic and Environmental Challenges 13 Recession, competition from India and China, and climate change 15 India and China 19 Climate change is already happening 22 Reducing emissions 33 Current emissions in the UK 35 3 From Field to Fork: Reducing the Environmental 45 Impacts of Eating Introduction 47 Do we really need to buy so much food? 50 How much GHG emissions come from growing the different foodstuffs? 53 What I did and didn’t do 60 Bringing it all together 89 Annex: Seasonal fruit and vegetables 97 4 Getting from A to B: Reducing Emissions from Travel 99 Our travel patterns 101 Actions individuals can take immediately to reduce their transport emissions 108 Changes to be made over the next five years 115 My own travel patterns 136 Actions I took to reduce my transport emissions 138 Bringing it all together 146 The Economical Environmentalist 5 Keeping Your Home Warm 151 Introduction 153 The present situation in the UK 155 Understanding your house’s energy-efficiency performance 161 Options for reducing energy use 164 My actions to reduce the house’s emissions 189 Bringing it all together 199 Annex 1: Heat conducting properties of different materials (at atmospheric pressure) 205 Annex 2: Desired temperature of house and number of degree-days of heat needed to maintain desired temperature (for England) 206 6 Our Friends Electric 207 Introduction 209 Carbon emissions from electricity generation 210 Options for reducing carbon dioxide emissions from electrical appliances 217 What I did and didn’t do 239 Bringing it altogether 242 7 Waste Not, Want Not 247 Introduction 249 The scale of the challenge 250 Options for reducing CO2 253 What I did and didn’t do 276 Bringing it all together 280 8 Travel and Leisure 285 Introduction 287 Understanding why, where and how much we travel 291 Options for reducing emissions 295 My emissions from travelling 308 Actions for next year 311 9 Carbon Offsetting, Communities and Social Change 315 Introduction 317 Total CO2 emissions reductions from the actions taken 317 Buying our way out of climate change emissions 319 Personal emissions reductions and the macro-economy 329 List of abbreviations 337 Index 341 viii List of Figures, Tables and Boxes Figures 1.1 What is the number one thing you are doing to tackle climate change? 8 1.2 Which of the actions on this list, if any, do you think will do the most to help reduce climate change? 9 2.1 Contribution to UK GDP of different industries, 2006 17 2.2 Possible trajectories for total global emissions of greenhouse gases to achieve stabilization at 400, 450 and 550ppm of greenhouse gases 30 2.3 Regional per capita emissions of carbon dioxide from fuel use, 2006 32 2.4 Total emissions of carbon from fossil fuel combustion, 1750 to 2001 32 2.5 UK greenhouse gas emissions by economic sector, 2005 36 2.6 How our purchases give rise to emissions 37 2.7 Average direct and indirect UK emissions, 2001 38 2.8 Approximate emissions of carbon dioxide according to income of household, 2007 40 3.1 Greenhouse gas emissions from ‘eating’ 48 3.2 Source of greenhouse gas emissions from producing, transporting and preparing food 49 3.3 Body mass index of English adults 1993 to 2006 51 3.4 Prevalence of overweight and obesity among adults in selected European Union countries, 2004 51 3.5 Percentage contribution of food types to average daily total energy and protein intake 52 3.6 Greenhouse gas emissions per tonne of agriculture and fishery produce 54 3.7 Emissions from organic farming systems relative to conventional systems for Dutch and German farms 59 3.8 Emissions from agriculture and fishing from my weekly diet and the average UK person’s diet 67 3.9 Target emissions of greenhouse gases from the food manufacturing industry, 2004 70 3.10 Greenhouse gas emissions and total distance-weight, 2002 73 3.11 Relative efficiency of different modes of transport 73 3.12 Source of air-freighted food and horticulture imported into the UK 74 The Economical Environmentalist 3.13 Mass of various food and horticulture commodities air-freighted into the UK, 2004 75 3.14 Summary of the GHG impacts of the changes in my diet 89 4.1 Passenger transport by mode 1952–2006 102 4.2 Passenger transport by bicycle and motorcycle 1952–2006 102 4.3 Average distance travelled per person per year within UK, 2006 103 4.4 Breakdown of leisure and personal business travel, 2006 104 4.5 Distances travelled and average length and duration of trip