If you could make one law to help stop climate change, what would it be?

Question: If you could make one law to help stop climate change, what would it be?
- Keywords:
  climate change,
  policy
Asked by anon-371257 on 7 Nov 2023.
- Octavia Brayley answered on 7 Nov 2023:
  
  There are so many laws we would need to pass to stop climate change. But the largest contributors to climate change and carbon dioxide emissions are electricity and heat (31%), agriculture (11%), and transportation (15%). So a law to ensure we are relying less on fossil fuels and more on green energy would be really helpful. However, laws won’t be passed unless we have a government that cares about the environment, so it’s really important to make your voice heard when you’re old enough to vote!
- Ian McKinley answered on 8 Nov 2023:
  
  I would like to see a large tax on all fossil fuels, with the money raised used to fight climate change, especially in developing countries.
- Paula McMahon answered on 8 Nov 2023:
  
  An easier and quicker way to make change is to make things that are ‘bad’ cost more. Whilst this would not initially be popular it would help everyone in the long term. After all without a liveable planet money and everything else will not matter!
- Jonathan Allen answered on 8 Nov 2023:
  
  I would like to make companies more responsible for wasting electricity or choosing the cheaper option of fossil fuels over nuclear or renewable energies. Electricity generation is the largest contributor to climate change worldwide and it upsets me when I see buildings like shops and offices closed at night with all their lights still on, wasting electricity. So I would make it a law that buildings must turn off all unnecessary electrical devices when they are not using them and are closed to avoid that waste and provide financial encouragements to use clean energy sources instead of fossil fuels.
- Ashley Hecklinger answered on 8 Nov 2023:
  
  I would make a law that would allow ‘cleaner’ forms of electricity (those with less emissions) to be developed quicker and more efficiently to lessen our reliance on fossil fuels – perhaps the law would help remove barriers that slow down the transition, introduce support schemes, or even fund research programmes. One support scheme I thought was interesting was helping farmers get access to solar panels / wind turbines to have clean electricity for their agriculture business.
- Andrew Lyon answered on 8 Nov 2023:
  
  That is a really good question!
  
  Probably a good way to approach would be to look at who is having the biggest impact, so this could be for example greenhouse gas emissions and/or fossil fuel use. You could then set a target to reduce these to a level that isn’t causing an impact.
  
  This is generally how environmental laws work, the overall aim is to prevent emissions where possible and then minimise them if they can’t be prevented. There are requirements to use certain processes and there are usually limits for emissions to air, land and water and other environmental issues such as energy usage. Activities that have a higher pollution risk will have more controls on them and companies may be required to invest quite a lot of money on new machinery or equipment to reduce emission levels.
  
  The good news is that there are laws in place in the UK that are tackling climate change and there are a lot of people making sure these laws are being followed and also making sure that they are kept up to date.
- Amy Stockwell answered on 10 Nov 2023:
  
  I would like all products and services to be taxed based on their carbon footprint (and other environmental impacts). Therefore the worst products would cost a lot more.
  This would encourage companies to improve the designs of their products, to become cheaper.
  
  Right now it is often cheaper to buy the ‘bad’ products. And with a cost of living crisis, normal people can not afford to buy the ‘better’ products, even if they want to.