Victoria's Green Matters - 19th Sept 2013

Deal With IT's Secretary Victoria Nicholls writes a regular column in the East Kent Mercury:‘Zero Carbon Britain’ is certainly a phrase with which to conjure. Can we really produce all the energy we need without producing the damaging greenhouse gasses that contribute to dangerous climate change? A recent report by the Centre for Alternative Technology (CAT) illustrates that we certainly can if we take the necessary steps to change our lifestyles.

Apart from the way we produce energy, we must look at what we eat, the way that we produce that food and the way we use land. Here in the UK, on average, we lack balance in our diets and tend to over-eat, leading us to suffer from many diet related diseases. If we changed our eating habits so that we ate less meat and dairy products and much more fruit, vegetables and cereals, we would significantly improve our health and also reduce the carbon dioxide emissions from agriculture. We would also need less land for food production, freeing up areas to grow biofuels for our energy systems and provide areas for planting trees and restoring peat-lands, a proven way of carbon storage.

We also need to reduce our energy use. This can be achieved by a combination of more efficient technology and changes in behaviour that will lead to large reductions in energy use for hot water and heating, cooking and lighting and transport. Insulation in new buildings and the retro-fitting of older properties will lead to a reduction in energy demand by about 50%. Victoria Nicholls. Transition Deal.