Jonathan Todd

Newsnight’s “Ethical Man”, Justin Rowlett, spent one year doing all that he could to reduce the carbon footprint of his family. He went to more considerable lengths to do so than, I think, the overwhelming majority of people in this country would even contemplate, as he discusses in the video below.

The end result of all of this sacrifice? A 20 percent reduction in his total carbon footprint. So, a gain, but enough of a gain to justify all of the pain? There was certainly more pain involved than, I fear, the average Brit could tolerate. Some might shrug their shoulders in the face of this and say: “What the UK does doesn’t matter anyways, as the key to averting climate change is what happens in China”. 

It’s certainly true that it would be possible for everyone in the UK to go through the pain of Ethical Man and for all of the consequent gains to be more than cancelled out by legion upon legion of dirty power plants and similar in China. However, it’s also true that China is less likely to cut back on its emissions while it continues to feel that the west is not making serious attempts to do so, as Ed Miliband recently said:

“China used to think the developed world is not serious. That’s what they were saying [at UN talks] in December. But now they know the US is on the pitch and ready to engage with them. It has made a real difference to what China is saying”.

President Obama seems to be changing the terms of engagement. He’ll only be able to continue to do so, however, if he is able to begin to deliver reductions in US emissions. China will doubtless judge him by his actions as well as his words. How will he deliver such action?

He might expect every American to ape Ethical Man tomorrow or he might think that his government’s decisions are at the crux of things. As Gavin Esler says in the introduction to the video below: Ethical Man’s “experience raises profound questions about how far individuals really can do much and how far government decisions on coal, carbon taxes, plastic bags and the like really are the key.”

Matthew Taylor has discussed government-centric and citizen-centric models of change. Ethical Man, obviously, offers a citizen-centric model but if Obama decides that every American is unlikely to ape Ethical Man, he will prefer a government-centric model. Certainly, there is much that governments can achieve on “coal, carbon taxes, plastic bags and the like” but, equally, citizens live in communities.

What might Ethical Man have achieved if he had attempted his experiment on the scale of a community? The village of Ashton Hayes, Cheshire, has actually attempted something similar; so, the notion isn’t an entirely fanciful one. Ethical Man’s reduction in his direct carbon footprint was a more impressive 37 percent. The difference between 20 and 37 percent is explained by the carbon contained in services that he used – schools, hospitals, etc - which he did not directly control. But, collectively, his community probably did control, at least to some extent, many of these carbon emissions that weren’t under Ethical Man’s direct control.

Surely Ethical Man’s total reduction in his carbon footprint would have exceeded 20 percent if he could have convinced his community to change their behaviour in certain respects? Citizen-centric models of change can’t simply mean the lonely endurance of pain but must also encompass an attempt to change the behaviour of those around you. That, ultimately, must lead to greater gain. It makes me wonder what the citizens of East Dulwich, the part of London where I live, might achieve if they worked together.

If communities across the west did this, then it would be that much easier for the likes of Obama and Miliband to make the case to China. That’s not to say, however, that our leaders won’t need to make some tough choices on “coal, carbon taxes, plastic bags and the like”. It’s simply to say that the pain of being ethical will be minimised and the gain of being ethical will be maximised if citizens can make their communities, rather than simply their households, ethical. Be the change that you want to see, as Obama didn’t quite say.