Low Carbon Economy

Emissions of Carbon Dioxide from our homes, factories and vehicles are causing the global climate to change.

Local, regional, national, European and global policies all call for dramatic reductions in these emissions.

For Britain, these policies mean reducing our carbon footprint by 80% by 2050. To put this into perspective, a 2050 ration of carbon would be enough for you to do one of the following each day:

- Drive 15 miles
- Buy two cotton t-shirts
- Eat a cheeseburger and fries
- Heat and power a bedsit

Clearly, we want to be able to do all of the above and more! The challenge of the next 40 years will be to find ways of breaking the link between fossil fuels and the things we do in our daily lives.

On the face of it, this seems like an impossible challenge. But history shows us that we are capable of enormous changes.

The industrial revolution harnessed the power of steam to drive machinery.

More recently, the information revolution has transformed the way we communicate and work.

If we are to avoid catastrophic and irreversible climate change, the low-carbon revolution will have to be every bit as dramatic as the industrial and information revolutions.

Two centuries ago, Cornwall led the world in technological innovation. Because of its distance from coal mines, Cornwall faced higher coal prices than other parts of Britain. These higher prices spurred local engineers such as Richard Trevithick to design steam engines with much greater efficiency than those used elsewhere.

In 2024, Cornwall is at the end of the line for electricity, gas and oil supplies, yet it has a richer supply of wind, wave and tidal power than almost anywhere else in Europe, as well as the strongest sunshine in Britain.

Cornwall stands to benefit enormously from an economy which penalises the use of fossil fuels and rewards renewable technology.