Faultlines 4: Lifestyle change & regulation in climate policy

Lifestyle change has been a cornerstone of green thinking since the 1970s. We have had critiques of consumerism, ‘voluntary simplicity’, steady-state economics, and many claims that a simpler life is preferable. The key aim is to ‘do one’s bit’ to avoid a future in which damaging climate change will adversely affect everyone. Many people already gain personal satisfaction from their voluntary attempts to achieve such a lifestyle, but in fact, such people are a small minority. Actually, there is clear evidence that over society as a whole carbon emissions rise steadily with increasing household income, and that a few hundreds of  billionaires are responsible for a million times more greenhouse gases than the average person.

This is why some experts say that encouraging mass adoption of lifestyle change is not a useful strategy in climate policy. Instead, what is needed is top-down regulation of emissions. After all we don’t allow people to “decide” how they will dispose of their sewage, do we? But such regulation might be politically very difficult to achieve.

This is the fourth in a series of all-day sessions at BRLSI, in which a panel of experts will discuss and answer your questions on a significant ‘Faultline’ within current sustainability policies. Lunch will be provided.

Speakers include: John Barrett (Leeds University), Brenda Boardman (Environmental Change Institute, Oxford), Helen Haddon (EcoTogether, Bath), Peter Harper (Bath University), Mark Lynas (writer and journalist; We Planet), Stephen Peake (Cambridge and Open University),  Chris Ryan (School of Design, Melbourne University, Australia), Lorraine Whitmarsh (Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research and Bath University).

Non Members – Use the discount code TRB 50 to get 50% off tickets.

Also, we are delighted to share that we have 10 fully funded student places available to claim one of these use the code –  Faultlines100.