Britain needs a new economic strategy to end its stagnation and close its £8,300 living standards gap with its peers.

The summary at the end of the day is the easiest place to find that. If you go to

www.youtube.com/watch?v=A72W_C8ijRw&t=21140s

quite near the end (it's the whole day so the time line is quite sensitive) at 6.35.32 the summary is about 10 minutes long but it does give the solutions they suggest M0nica.

Thank you for trying

M0nica

MaizieD How?

Perhaps a central fund, built with a levy on initial sales of the fossil fuels which have made their fortunes, and a retrospective charge on the SWFs for the damage to the climate which their product has caused? A fund which poorer countries could apply to for funding for green energy projects?

Gordon Brown had a suggestion of this sort earlier this year

The world's richest oil states should pay a global windfall tax to help poorer nations combat climate change, ex-PM Gordon Brown has said.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-66906395

Yes,*MaizieD, but you first need to get the agreement of the owners of the funds, and how do you do that? Do you really think that the gulf states will beat their breasts and confess they have done wtong and put billions of $s into a fund whose use is out oftheir control?

MaizieD

^Sovereign Wealth funds are built up by mainly small countries with huge incomes from one source - often energy.^

Perhaps, given the source of their profits is usually fossil fuels, these countries should be required to contribute meaningfully to countering climate change.

Yes, but we have no way to to leverage them into doing that, we are addicted to their oil and gas, we can hardly boycott them.

They are a cartel they set the price we pay it.

No, we cannot boycott them, but I think saying we are addicted to oil andgas is extreme and not very helpful.

Many countries, have made major reductions in their emissons. So many places we use energy are now many times more efficient than they were. Compare LED lights with tungsten lights, look how muh better insulated most buildings are these days.

I am afraid the biggest driver of indifference to energy conservation and improvemen is attitudes like your that make people feel that here is no point in doing anything because it will not make a difference.

I would like to see the launch of programmes that encourage people to reduce energy consumption by telling them how much has happened. Church roof repair funds always used to work on the see how much we already have basis, and wee very successful.

I deliberately used the word “addicted” because we could travel less, we could fly less, we could use more public transport, we are not doing any of that.

Maybe in 50 yrs we will have energy independance, the cost will be massive

Katie59 Lots of people are doing both the things you mention - and much more.

Katie59

I deliberately used the word “addicted” because we could travel less, we could fly less, we could use more public transport, we are not doing any of that.

Maybe in 50 yrs we will have energy independance, the cost will be massive

In 50 years time, Katie59, the planet will be in a state that is almost beyond the scope of our imaginations if we persist in the illusion that there's no need to hurry energy independence. Or to change our way of life...

Wouldn't it be nice if instead of being populated by moaning minnies and catastrophists, the global warming movement and in particular those involved in it and groud level i the ddifferent countries wer to be positive and encouraging and do and say things that would motivate people to take action.

We know in so many other fields from child rearing to those trying to achieve great physical heights that encouragement produces far better results than criticism.

I magne someone one deciding to train to run a marathon and from day i all those around them kept telling them they would never do it, they didn't have enough training time, it would make them ill, they might have a heart attack. Would you like to lay any money on this person actually completing the training let a lonbe running the race.

WEll this is a good description of most of the climate improvement movemnt at the moment.

The latest climate change scare story is Mosquitoes, they will infest the UK and cause massive loss of life within a few years. They won’t of course, it’s just another extreme story the Guardian prints week after week. A few weeks ago the Gulf Stream was going to stop and we would be in deep freeze.

If you want a more positive outlook don’t read the Guardian

I don't.

Katie59

The latest climate change scare story is Mosquitoes, they will infest the UK and cause massive loss of life within a few years. They won’t of course, it’s just another extreme story the Guardian prints week after week. A few weeks ago the Gulf Stream was going to stop and we would be in deep freeze.

If you want a more positive outlook don’t read the Guardian

I don’t know why you’ve formed the impression that the Guardian has masterminded the mosquito story though Katie59, because it’s all over the media, it’s been reported on TV too. Not the best example.

I have to admit that I'm finding it difficult to reconcile the loss of the Gulf Stream, which will make the UK colder, with the proposition that climate change could make the UK hot enough to sustain the mosquitos.. It can't be both, can it?

^MOnica
SporeRB's post shows the problem of Sovereign Wealth funds. The Singapore Sovereign wealth fund is enormous, and it will governed by rules that say it must npot invest its fundsin Singapore based businesses, very little of it anyway^

Singapore has 2 sovereign wealth funds, one for overseas investment and another for domestic investment. The figure I quoted 1.3 trillion US dollars is the total of both SWF but it does not include the state pension fund.

One advantage of having an enormous sovereign wealth fund is the government there can and will draw on its reserves for the next 50 years to mitigate the effects of climate change and rising sea level.

Fear not, I’m still here and our garden is mosquito haven. I get bitten every time I go outside. I’ve been bitten on Fiji, Bali, Noumea, Cook Islands, Vanuatu and still, still surviving !

One advantage of having an enormous sovereign wealth fund is the government there can and will draw on its reserves for the next 50 years to mitigate the effects of climate change and rising sea level.

Except that the investments Singapore has made in other countries and other economies to generate these revenues may be making the world much more dangerous and unpleasant for many more people in other parts of the world.

I don’t know who started the Mosquito scare story, the editorial policy of the Guardian is to print any scare story whether it’s credible or not and that does influence a great many.

Global warming is a fact of life and reducing CO2 and our consumption is the right thing to do, personally I don’t believe enough is being done, global emissions are still rising

Katie59

I don’t know who started the Mosquito scare story, the editorial policy of the Guardian is to print any scare story whether it’s credible or not and that does influence a great many.

Global warming is a fact of life and reducing CO2 and our consumption is the right thing to do, personally I don’t believe enough is being done, global emissions are still rising

From the BBC a couple of days ago. I am unclear as to why posters have decided it is a scare story when the little blighter is known to be infesting France - thst means only a hop across the channel (I blame the mosquito smugglers).

“Parts of the UK could become home to mosquitoes capable of spreading dengue fever, chikungunya and zika virus by the 2040s and 2050s, health officials warn.
The UK Health Security Agency's report is based on a worst-case scenario, which would see high emissions and temperatures rising by 4C by 2100.
It says other effects include a rise in heat-related deaths and flooding.
The report, involving 90 experts, pulls together the "substantial and growing" evidence of the current effects of climate change on our health.
It also makes projections based on what it says is a "plausible worst-case scenario" that could happen if international commitments to tackle climate change are not properly kept.
Prof Nigel Arnell, professor of climate change at the University of Reading, says: "Whilst we clearly hope temperatures won't get that far, it is prudent to prepare for the worst case when planning health resources, if the consequences of us underestimating the risk are so significant."
One major health concern is the UK becoming more suitable for invasive species such as the Asian tiger mosquito, also known as Aedes albopictus.
While the mosquito only carries harmful viruses after biting infected people, London could see regular cases of dengue fever by 2060, the report says.
The mosquitoes have already been responsible for cases of dengue in France and chikungunya virus in Italy in recent years.
The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) already has a surveillance system in place to rapidly spot invasive mosquitoes, including a network of traps placed at UK borders that detect mosquito eggs”

You can of course dismiss this as a scare story, just as global warning was dismissed. Bit like King Canute. You are entirely entitled to your opinion, however daft it is.

MaizieD

I have to admit that I'm finding it difficult to reconcile the loss of the Gulf Stream, which will make the UK colder, with the proposition that climate change could make the UK hot enough to sustain the mosquitos.. It can't be both, can it?

I think that we will get colder winters (no central heating from the Gulf Stream) but much hotter summers - bit like mid- Canada?

I'm still not sure if that makes scientific sense, Wwmk2 😂😂

I shall investigate later...

Well I remain completely befuddled by the whole global warming CO2 debate and still have Christmas cards to write.
I can’t help query the global warming industry whilst simultaneously having a token nod to trying to save the planet.
Not that the planet will notice.
I think it’s quite likely that there are many reasons for changing global temperatures and that science is failing to understand and present them. My thought for the week is that the axis of the earth has moved…. Too old and tired to prove it though.

Yes, it has and doe quite frequently.

A Canada has a continental climate like Eastern Europe, we have a maritime climate influence by weather systems crossing the relatively warm Atlantic. The Gulf Stream warms all of North Western Europe even as far north as the Arctic Circle, only occasionally do we get a prolonged Eastern air flow bringing cold continental air to the UK - The Beast from the East.
The last major freeze in my time was 1963/64 where the UK was frozen solid for 2 months, my parents said 1947 was worse. We have short cold spells which cause chaos but I guess we all travelled a lot less in ‘64.

ronib Try this for size. www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-24021772

Katie59 we travelled a lot less in 1947?