If you ruled the world, what would you implement to help with climate change

[GiraffeInTheCity]

Daydreaming if world domination whilst doing a rain dance...

If you ruled unilaterally, what would you do to make things (anything) more climate friendly? I would

• set net zero targets for much sooner (net zero 2050/2030 feels like ages given the emergency) and would require companies to have solid plans to get there. Probably set it for the next 3 to 5 years. Massive fines if you don't meet targets.

• mandate large scale public transport infrastructure upgrades in big cities where there isn't enough (tax the billionaires to pay for it) and make driving in them difficult (ULEZ, scant parking etc)

• renationalise energy and water, with the view to run it on clean energy and without pumping effluent into the rivers / sea. I imagine there would need to be massive upgrades here too to achieve that. Not renationalising because the private sector is being a bunch of thieves dishonest, But because things need to move quickly now, this is an emergency.

• make eating meat / dairy / fish illegal (I know I'll get flamed for this one...) --

-- What would you do?

Ban private jets!

far more worried about putting clothes on our backs, food on the table and petrol in cars and heating my home come winter at the moment to worry about anything to do with climate change

Diplomacy with the largest polluters such as China and India to get them to sign up to cut their emissions. Stop all future climate conferences in person and have them all online via teams/ webex etc.

I believe that we have weather patterns and this is just one of those patterns that we are in now. Just as fashion comes in and out and back in again so will our weather.

So the hot summers and snowy winters of the past 70 years are what we base our back in the day when the weather was hot all summer - when in fact it was hot during may and June and shite July and august. I’m 49 and summer holidays of my youth were cloudy more than sunny and you wore a jumper to the beach -

Nationalise public transport and make it more cost effective than travelling by car. Rewilding. Sustainable farming practices. Introduce legislation to remove the consumer demand for "pretty" vegetables. Try to reduce consumer demand for meat. Invest in lab meat research. Ban lawns and incentives replacement with carbon capturing landscapes. Massive reforestation. Ban plastic packaging. Huge taxes for unnecessarily long supply chains (e. G. Produce in x, package in y, store in z country no more)

Ban any flight less than 4 hrs long

Maximum one return flight per year per person none transferable , plus one per person per year for business again none transferable

Invest in train infrastructure

All new homes with decent insulation , solar panels and ground source heat pumps

Higher taxes on petrol /invested in public transport outside London ( this would hurt me I know )

Invest in hydrogen, water infrastructure

make eating meat / dairy / fish illegal

This would be completely impractical - you will end up with millions of people with massive nutritional defiencies - protein, B12, omegas, etc - around the country. Most people (esp on poorer ) don't make healthy choices at the best of times, it would be impossible to cut their diets down even further. Best thing to do would be to make fruit and veg cheaper so that more people gravitate towards that.

Fast fashion companies to pay additional taxes for landfill, or forced to be responsible for disposal of clothes.

No diplomacy with the polluters , just huge import taxes in any goods made none sustainably, diplomacy to get that replicated across other net import countries

Within a decade the meat eating will be much less of a problem as additives for animal foods have been created which reduce the amounts of methane they produce by about 75%.

I’d focus on moving towards sustainable energy, solar etc, and insulating old properties etc. I’d also discourage pointless consumption of tat.

Yes, yes to all this.

And I would pay less wealthy countries to keep the forests and landscapes that we have destroyed in our own.

@MadonnasKebab what you "believe" is utterly irrelevant.

What matters is the best available evidence built on decades worth of scientific research.

Make the eco alternatives cheaper. Refills often cost more than the packaged versions.

Updated planning regulations to make new buildings more efficient. Retrofitting of
older buildings, with funding. Not just houses - why, for instance, can’t we fit solar panels to the roofs of buildings like warehouses? They’re flat, large areas, and not generally overshadowed - surely they’d be perfect?

renationalise utility and transport companies - it’s a disgrace that Thames Water are allowed to waste 24% of their treated water through leaks. The idea that private does it better has surely been comprehensively disproved by the charlatans running these companies into the ground and profiting hugely.

Investment in cycling infrastructure - separate cycle routes to keep cyclists safe, with the principle being that the pedestrian and cyclists get the direct routes, cars have to take the long way round.

Reframe our diplomatic policies to put climate towards the forefront. Including foreign aid, as many of the poorest countries stand to be hit hardest by climate change.

No children before the age of 30, and no more than two children per family.

Neither of these is possible / ethical to try to mandate in the real world though.

Go on a massive tree planting spree.
Certainly make meat eating less attractive so huge swathes of land aren't used to grow animal feed - the farmers could sell that land off to grow trees.
Fields margins at the very least should be planted bigger and more diverse plant life.
Encourage housing developments to build Up more not out.
Incorporate wildlife highways into existing road structures, link wildlife corridors across the UK.
Give a maximum quota on flights per year per person, unless special circumstances dictate.

Nationalise water and power and public transport. Make public transport better and cheaper than car use ( including outside of cities). More use of internet meeting so poeple dont travel miles for meetings which could be sorted in an email ( think this is happening already)

Pay for it by taxing the shit put of plastic crap/ cheap disposable things.

I'd also bring in a citizens living wage so that everyone could afford food and heating and a roof over their head. More away from consumerism as a way to cheer people/ the masses up..... free or cheap sports facilities/ community events/ education...... leisure time around this rather than shopping.

Tbh I dont know much about economics.... but I suspect it would be an economic disaster. Not sure the current capitalist/ consumerist model is making the population happier at the moment though so worth a shot.

i would try to think of some carrot not stick arrangement to discourage large families - the population in some countries is ballooning and there are not the resources/land/infrastructure/climate to support billions more citizens. Same goes for here.

• those who can, wfh. Discourage more than 2 children. Importing stuff from overseas has a carbon tax associated with mileage and estimated sustainability of production of said stuff..

Solar panels on all domestic new builds and on all commercial premises, old and new. Putting them on farmland is stupid and wasteful given the need for food security.

Require housing developers to include a larger number of trees per hectare and maintain/replace them for 20 years. We are going to need shade and retained humidity.

Govt to inspect every house pre-1980, review insulation and create a schedule of work to bring up to scratch. Take vat off insulation products.

Ban new diesel/petrol cars from 2026.
Tax on airline fuel.

This, definitely.

Kenco being a prime offender !

I’d put women in charge of everything with climate impact. The climate was wrecked by men - in industry, in energy companies, in politics, in the military. Look at Russia vs Ukraine. Women don’t invade countries or burn crops or chop down rainforests etc.

I’d ration car journeys and energy. None of this ‘rich people use as much energy as they want’ nonsense. No buildings lit up overnight.

I’d ban coal mining and burning of carbon based fuels like coal and wood except where done on a small scale by families for their own family power/cooking.

I’d invest very heavily in climate cleaning technologies, in nuclear power and in renewable fuels.

I’d ban use of petrol vehicles after 2030 and sale of petrol cars immediately, and heavily subsidise electric vehicles.

Well if I ruled the world unilaterally there’s be no need for diplomacy, so I’d go straight for the main causes of climate change and force China, India etc to slash thier emissions and limit the number of children people were allowed to have.

If I ruled the world, it'd be make it any new oil or gas exploration illegal.
At the moment shell and bp are still looking for new fossil fuel reserves to tap into.
That needs to stop right now. All their funding, expertise etc needs to go into developing renewable technologies and carbon capture and storage.

I would work on an emissions per head of population- which would mean coming down hard in sone American states