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?

Worldwide free and available contraception

Worldwide free and available access to termination

Ban plastic use

Worldwide ban on pre-packaged soft drinks.

Completely unnecessary use of plastic, transport/fuel, water.

I am really sorry but I don't believe governments will fix this. They have known about the issues since at least the 70s. I am not saying don't campaign or raise issues with your political party, or start initiatives. But ultimately it is we who have to change. We have to stop taking flights, stop driving cars, stop buying products shipped from abroad, stop buying new, stop buying from Amazon, ration our energy use, save water, create wildlife space in our gardens. It's us who drives the markets. I struggle with trying to live a low carbon lifestyle myself. But we don't need all this stuff. We need food, water, health care, shelter and clothing, clean air and each other. We need very little really. I know people will say our economy will collapse if we do this. But endless economic growth is not possible and I think we have reached the end of the road.

Same as you, make meat, dairy (especially) and eggs and fish illegal. All so horrendously cruel and unnecessary too.

A dictatorship you say? Well then I’d ban all those completely unnecessary toiletries - deodorant, hair gel, gloopy shower gel, perfume - that none of us truly need and take up vast amounts of plastic packaging.

Then I’d work through banning all the other absolute tat that makes its way into my house. Balloons will be banned, as will be toys that are basically disposable like kinder eggs, freebie pens and marketing material, kids party bags (and their contents), straws, almost anything ‘disposable’ like kitchen towel and tissues, those furbie toys, plastic flowers, the majority of home decor accessories sold by garden centres and tourist shops… the list goes on.

We seem to manufacture an awful lot of stuff that we neither want nor need. There is simply no point in working out how to keep making this rubbish sustainably, we just need to stop making it.

Re buying yogurts in plastic pots, have you tried making your own yogurt?
Lakeland sell Easiyo kits, very simple to use, sachet + boiling water, leave overnight. It doesn't need electricity other than boiling the water and you can make a week's worth at a time.

And where do you plan to get the manure from to keep the ground healthy and nutritious to grow crops and vegetables on without animal agriculture? Artificial fertiliser?

Farming/animal husbandry isn't inherently cruel. It industrialised/factory farming that is the problem and even then when done correctly there are extremely high welfare welfare standards.

Then climate impact of agriculture is vastly over stated using some very dodgy statistics and fortunately there does seem increasingly be some acknowledgement of this. Just for example many stats don't acknowledge that crops eaten by animals are often first harvested for human use for the premium grain with the waste from that being eaten by animals. Makes a great stat to say e.g 80% of a crop went for animal feed but doesn't show the truth that humans took their 20% first!

What we should be doing is encouraging more traditional farming methods, as well as encouraging small holdings serving local communities with high welfare high quality protein with as few food miles as possible.

Certainly in the UK the government are doing the opposite. They are cutting subsidies in a way that will make e.g traditional hill farming almost impossible and favours large scale /industrial farming methods instead. The small family farm is doomed.

add into that the diabolical trade deals we have done post Brexit and soon we will find that nearly all of our beef will be imported from the other countries.

Oh, absolutely. All those "hen nights" in Dubai. Or shopping weekends in NY. Ridiculous.

There are so many great ideas on this thread. I'd put a tax on online shopping that isn't a food delivery. The number of times that Amazon Prime van comes down our road, delivering one small package to a house is ridiculous.

I also agree one bio child per person.
There are so many threads on here about wanting a 3rd child, and I've noticed people aren't stopping at 2 now.
All my neighbours have 3 or 4.

Great thread. Problem is how to implement this while being in a democracy! China had the one child policy for so long because they weren't acknowledging human rights. How to bring about the radical change we need in western populations who think wearing a mask was a major infringement of their freedom?

I would tax families after child no2. No further child benefit. (Yeh, I know there are multiple births but they would be excepted). Tax on any 4x4 in a city.

Micro wind turbines up the sides of all tower blocks, and solar panel awnings on south facing municipal lobbies (eg hospitals, schools etc.
Vertical wind turbines on electricity pylons.
Mini water turbines fitted to drainpipes on large roofs.
Free or heavily subsidised public transport, paid for by increased parking charges in cities.
Municipal flowerbeds planted with community food crops.

I'm not perfect, but we try. I then see some article about slebs such as Ecclestones and Beckhams, and wonder why I bother. I agree to one short haul flight a year, and one long haul flight every four years (not transferable).

The plastic tat should be made illegal.

Whilst farmers would be made to have a percentage of their farms as habitat, I do think we need to feed the world and meat/ dairy/ eggs should all be personal choice.

I often see a massive 4 x 4, and just an older retired couple in it. I think we need some infrastructure improvements to all be electric first, but high polluting cars should be banned (not just 4 x 4s but cars with a bigger than 2 litre engine).

Absolutely nothing in this tiny country anything we do her is irrelevant it the big countries we need to start with America China India complete waste of time otherwise !

No action is irrelevant. We need to do our bit, and put pressure on other nations to also do their bit.
Most of the reason developing nations generate lots of carbon is because they're making all the crap we unnecessarily buy, and because they're economically developing to emulate lifestyles they see in the West.
We can afford to do better, so we must, even if we are only a small part of the solution.

I’d have a strong word with tescos. All that prepackaged fruit and veg for a start.
And do we really need to buy a quick drink of water in a bottle that never ever rots?
when I was a girl (!) you took a Tupperware cup
/ thermos everywhere, stuff was wrapped in paper or in waxed paper containers. Strawberries were dead exciting because they were only in June. Milk was delivered in glass.
retailers will not stop designing more and more stuff for us to buy, stuff we now think of as normal. My friend was amazed how easy making gravy is. No, you don’t need to buy this stuff, we just buy it because it’s suggested that it must be difficult to make and we fall for it. And supermarkets are designed for you to buy extra. And kids don’t need endless toys. For centuries they’ve been happy with one or two. I’m decluttering now and am amazed at the stuff they’ve been bought. The amount and the cost. My unreachable dream was a sylvanians toy and they have somehow amassed the caravan and car, endless animals, a house. Undreamt of luxury!

No, I think it would just mean that you'd have to save up your miles each year until you had enough.

How arrogant of you to think you know more than climate scientists.

Thanks @Scrowy Common sense as usual

I'd introduce a grey water harvesting system, so water from the shower, washing up etc would be stored in a tank and this would supply toilet cisterns. This would be fitted in all new homes, and retrofitted in older ones.

There are some amazing ideas on this thread, but I think we'd need a benign dictator to implement them. The problem with democracy is that no government will implement unpopular measures (like restricting flights, rationing meat, petrol etc) because they'd just be voted out at the next election.

We can stop buying stuff made in China or India that we don't actually need!

I love how pretty much everyone mentioning flying still wants a rule where they can fly abroad each year. It’s a total mindset thing. I haven’t flown for about 15 years. No bad things have happened. I wonder how we change the mindsets. That is a key issue.

By the way, I have my own mindset issues that need tackling. I want something and I need to get it as quickly and conveniently as possible - hence Amazon Prime. I need to change this mindset.

@SergeiL I've not been abroad since 2012. I still think an annual flight is needed, my cousin lives abroad, and it's nice for my aunt and uncle to see her annually. I also know people that go abroad about five times a year, and suspect there would be revolution if you took away all foreign travel.

@SergeiL agreed, but there are lots of people that have family abroad (all of mine live more than 1000 miles away) so a cumulative miles allocation would be awful in itself (I'd only see mine once every 2 or 3 years, or go by boat...) but if zero flying is what is needed to avert climate meltdown, and that was the law I'd have to live with it.