The Observer/UK
by James Randerson
Hotel guests should
have their electricity monitored; hefty aviation taxes should be
introduced to deter people from flying;
and iced water in restaurants should be curtailed, the
world's leading climate scientist has told the Observer.
Rajendra Pachauri, the chair of the
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change (IPCC), warned that
western society must undergo a radical value shift
if the worst
effects of climate change were to be avoided.
A new value system of "sustainable consumption" was now urgently required, he said.
Rajendra Pachauri
accepts the Nobel prize on behalf of the IPCC in
2007. (Photograph: AFP/Getty Images)
"Today we
have reached the point where consumption and people's desire to consume has grown out of proportion," said Pachauri. "The reality is
that our lifestyles are unsustainable."
Among the proposals highlighted by Pachauri were
the suggestion that hotel guests
should be made responsible for their energy use. "I don't see why
you couldn't have a meter in the room to register
your energy consumption from air-conditioning or heating and you should be charged
for that," he said. "By bringing about changes of this kind, you could
really ensure that people start becoming accountable for their actions."
Pachauri also proposed that governments use taxes on aviation
to provide heavy subsidies for other
forms of transport. "We should make
sure there is a huge difference
between the cost of flying and taking the train,"
he said. Despite the fact that
there is often little benefit
in time and convenience in short-haul
flights, he said people were still making the "irrational"
choice to fly. Taxation should be used to discourage
them.
He dismissed suggestions
that the actions he was advocating were insignificant next to the decisions
that would be made at the
UN's
climate summit which opens in Copenhagen in seven days' time. "In a democracy,
governments will ultimately
respond to what the people want,"
he said. "If the people have
a strong desire which can be
demonstrated through their actions, as well as their vote at the
time of elections, you can bring about a major shift in policy."
Pachauri caused controversy last year by advocating, in an interview with the Observer, that people should
eat less meat because of the levels of carbon emissions associated with rearing livestock. He is scheduled to deliver a keynote speech at the opening
session of the Copenhagen summit.
He said the opening bids from
China and the US on emissions
– announced last week – had given hope
that a deal could be reached in Copenhagen,
even if some
details would have to be filled
in later. "I think it provides momentum
to the whole negotiations," he said.
Pachauri was speaking to
the Observer before
a public discussion at the Wellcome Collection
in Euston with the philosopher AC Grayling yesterday. It will be broadcast
by the BBC World Service on
Wednesday.
He said that he also believed car use
would have to be "curbed": "I think we can
certainly use pricing to regulate the use of private vehicles." He added he was a
supporter of former London mayor Ken Livingstone's plan to increase the congestion
charge to £25 for the most polluting
vehicles. The proposal was dropped by Boris Johnson and the charge currently stands at £8. Pachauri also denounced the practice
in some restaurants of providing iced water to customers who had not
ordered it. "It is just an enormous amount of waste that we don't
even think about," he said.
Ultimately, Pachauri said the value
shift that was needed would take
a generation to take hold.
"I think the section of society that will make it happen is
essentially young people. I think they will be far more sensitive than adults, who have
been corrupted by the ways
we have been
following for years now."
© Guardian News and Media Limited
2009
