The Green Deal and climate change

On Tuesday I attended a meeting about the Government's Green Deal, which will provide a financing package to homeowners and business for 'super-insulating' their properties. The finance package means up to £10,000 will be available to make houses warmer, especially those with solid walls which cannot be cavity-filled. This is a novel scheme as the 'loan' will actually be a charge against the property, not a debt to follow the person living in the property. It will be repaid through a charge on the electricity meter. Making our houses use less energy is essential if the UK is to meet its carbon reduction target (an 80% reduction on 1990 emissions).

A big problem is we won't reach these targets because our emissions are now about 30% MORE than they were in 1990 if you count the emissions which we have exported because we don't make stuff now, and instead import it from China. So some of China's emissions are actually ours and we should count them (but do not). In my humble opinion, the only way we are going to prevent dangerous climate change is if we are able to invent a gizmo that sucks CO2 out of the atmosphere and turn it into something inert. Human's are stupid but also very clever. So let's hope someone invents the CO2 sucker sooner rather than later.