Books and ideas are the new currency in these lockdown times …

I’ve been approached by a couple of XR groups who have been setting up online reading groups and wanted to discuss the ideas in my book, What We Need To Do Now (for a zero carbon future). This set my publisher, Profile Books, and me to thinking – how can we make this easy and inexpensive? We have arranged to have a nominal price of 99p for the book if downloaded from Apple, and (currently) £1.61 if bought as Amazon Kindle. The Kindle price should drop to 99p, too, but it is controlled by Amazon so out of Profile’s hands.

What We Need To Do Now (for a zero carbon future) is what it says on the tin: a program for how the UK can reach zero carbon across every sector of the economy – not just electricity but housing and heating, transport, flights, fashion, heavy industries (notably concrete and steel), agriculture and food. My conclusions are that each area is challenging but possible. We need to build an over-capacity of wind and solar energy, storing the excess as hydrogen. We can then use hydrogen to fuel our trains, shipping, boilers and heavy industry, while electrifying buses, trucks and cars. We need to farm – and eat – differently, encouraging plant-based alternatives to meat, and paying farmers to plant and maintain woodlands. Fashion has to become sustainable and aviation must pay its way, funding synthetic fuels and CO2 removal. And we then still have some way to go, using technical solutions to capture CO2 from the air and biochar to lock carbon in the soil. To help the transition, we’ll need to tax carbon emissions in a fair and equitable way that doesn’t penalise the less well-off. We should begin a programme of research into ‘geoengineering’, particularly working on how we reduce the intensity of the sun’s energy reaching the earth.

My program may not be the definitive answer. But I hope that anyone reading the book will feel it shows a possible pathway. And, of course, I’m eager to hear new ideas, which will be included in future editions of the book.

Please encourage your local groups – XR groups, for instance, or regular book groups – to take part and use the book. I am very happy to participate in any online discussions via Zoom.

Here are the links

Apple Bookstore for 99p and at Amazon Kindle for £1.61