1 00:00:23,693 --> 00:00:26,191 When the Industrial Revolution started, 2 00:00:26,215 --> 00:00:30,273 the amount of carbon sitting underneath Britain in the form of coal 3 00:00:31,108 --> 00:00:34,283 was as big as the amount of carbon sitting under Saudi Arabia 4 00:00:34,307 --> 00:00:35,645 in the form of oil. 5 00:00:36,631 --> 00:00:39,166 This carbon powered the Industrial Revolution, 6 00:00:39,190 --> 00:00:40,905 it put the "Great" in Great Britain, 7 00:00:40,929 --> 00:00:44,213 and led to Britain's temporary world domination. 8 00:00:45,285 --> 00:00:51,066 And then, in 1918, coal production in Britain peaked, 9 00:00:51,230 --> 00:00:52,997 and has declined ever since. 10 00:00:53,703 --> 00:00:57,756 In due course, Britain started using oil and gas from the North Sea, 11 00:00:57,780 --> 00:00:59,691 and in the year 2000, 12 00:00:59,715 --> 00:01:03,214 oil and gas production from the North Sea also peaked, 13 00:01:03,238 --> 00:01:05,384 and they're now on the decline. 14 00:01:06,836 --> 00:01:09,499 These observations about the finiteness 15 00:01:09,523 --> 00:01:13,390 of easily accessible, local, secure fossil fuels, 16 00:01:14,127 --> 00:01:17,077 is a motivation for saying, "Well, what's next? 17 00:01:17,438 --> 00:01:20,024 What is life after fossil fuels going to be like? 18 00:01:20,048 --> 00:01:23,514 Shouldn't we be thinking hard about how to get off fossil fuels?" 19 00:01:23,538 --> 00:01:26,502 Another motivation, of course, is climate change. 20 00:01:27,014 --> 00:01:29,515 And when people talk about life after fossil fuels 21 00:01:29,539 --> 00:01:31,410 and climate change action, 22 00:01:31,450 --> 00:01:33,880 I think there's a lot of fluff, 23 00:01:33,904 --> 00:01:36,768 a lot of greenwash, a lot of misleading advertising, 24 00:01:36,792 --> 00:01:41,281 and I feel a duty as a physicist to try to guide people around the claptrap 25 00:01:41,305 --> 00:01:45,079 and help people understand the actions that really make a difference, 26 00:01:45,103 --> 00:01:47,753 and to focus on ideas that do add up. 27 00:01:49,610 --> 00:01:51,189 Let me illustrate this 28 00:01:51,213 --> 00:01:54,396 with what physicists call a back-of-envelope calculation. 29 00:01:54,828 --> 00:01:56,673 We love back-of-envelope calculations. 30 00:01:56,697 --> 00:01:58,768 You ask a question, write down some numbers, 31 00:01:58,792 --> 00:01:59,955 and get an answer. 32 00:01:59,979 --> 00:02:03,179 It may not be very accurate, but it may make you say, "Hmm." 33 00:02:03,203 --> 00:02:04,625 So here's a question: 34 00:02:04,649 --> 00:02:07,852 Imagine if we said, "Oh yes, we can get off fossil fuels. 35 00:02:07,876 --> 00:02:09,544 We'll use biofuels. Problem solved. 36 00:02:09,568 --> 00:02:11,848 Transport ... We don't need oil anymore." 37 00:02:11,872 --> 00:02:18,306 Well, what if we grew the biofuels for a road 38 00:02:18,330 --> 00:02:21,104 on the grass verge at the edge of the road? 39 00:02:21,874 --> 00:02:26,087 How wide would the verge have to be for that to work out? 40 00:02:26,111 --> 00:02:27,759 OK, so let's put in some numbers. 41 00:02:27,783 --> 00:02:30,493 Let's have our cars go at 60 miles per hour. 42 00:02:30,517 --> 00:02:32,327 Let's say they do 30 miles per gallon. 43 00:02:32,351 --> 00:02:35,186 That's the European average for new cars. 44 00:02:35,539 --> 00:02:37,863 Let's say the productivity of biofuel plantations 45 00:02:37,887 --> 00:02:40,987 is 1,200 liters of biofuel per hectare per year. 46 00:02:41,011 --> 00:02:43,582 That's true of European biofuels. 47 00:02:43,951 --> 00:02:47,491 And let's imagine the cars are spaced 80 meters apart from each other, 48 00:02:47,515 --> 00:02:49,691 and they're perpetually going along this road. 49 00:02:49,715 --> 00:02:51,555 The length of the road doesn't matter, 50 00:02:51,579 --> 00:02:54,310 because the longer the road, the more biofuel plantation. 51 00:02:54,334 --> 00:02:55,922 What do we do with these numbers? 52 00:02:55,946 --> 00:02:59,975 Take the first number, divide by the other three, and get eight kilometers. 53 00:02:59,999 --> 00:03:01,155 And that's the answer. 54 00:03:01,179 --> 00:03:03,539 That's how wide the plantation would have to be, 55 00:03:03,563 --> 00:03:05,414 given these assumptions. 56 00:03:05,896 --> 00:03:08,629 And maybe that makes you say, "Hmm. 57 00:03:08,653 --> 00:03:11,084 Maybe this isn't going to be quite so easy." 58 00:03:12,830 --> 00:03:14,984 And it might make you think, 59 00:03:15,462 --> 00:03:17,867 perhaps there's an issue to do with areas. 60 00:03:17,891 --> 00:03:21,788 And in this talk, I'd like to talk about land areas, and ask: 61 00:03:21,812 --> 00:03:23,295 Is there an issue about areas? 62 00:03:23,319 --> 00:03:27,979 The answer is going to be yes, but it depends which country you are in. 63 00:03:28,003 --> 00:03:30,041 So let's start in the United Kingdom, 64 00:03:30,065 --> 00:03:32,357 since that's where we are today. 65 00:03:32,381 --> 00:03:34,726 The energy consumption of the United Kingdom, 66 00:03:34,750 --> 00:03:38,437 the total energy consumption -- not just transport, but everything -- 67 00:03:39,158 --> 00:03:40,964 I like to quantify it in lightbulbs. 68 00:03:40,988 --> 00:03:44,470 It's as if we've all got 125 lightbulbs on all the time, 69 00:03:44,494 --> 00:03:48,170 125 kilowatt-hours per day per person 70 00:03:48,194 --> 00:03:50,884 is the energy consumption of the UK. 71 00:03:51,288 --> 00:03:54,054 So there's 40 lightbulbs' worth for transport, 72 00:03:54,078 --> 00:03:55,730 40 lightbulbs' worth for heating, 73 00:03:55,754 --> 00:03:58,282 and 40 lightbulbs' worth for making electricity, 74 00:03:58,306 --> 00:04:00,220 and other things are relatively small, 75 00:04:00,244 --> 00:04:02,877 compared to those three big fish. 76 00:04:02,901 --> 00:04:05,631 It's actually a bigger footprint if we take into account 77 00:04:05,655 --> 00:04:09,277 the embodied energy in the stuff we import into our country as well. 78 00:04:09,301 --> 00:04:14,035 And 90 percent of this energy, today, still comes from fossil fuels, 79 00:04:14,059 --> 00:04:17,737 and 10 percent, only, from other, greener -- possibly greener -- sources, 80 00:04:17,761 --> 00:04:19,733 like nuclear power and renewables. 81 00:04:20,833 --> 00:04:22,118 So. 82 00:04:22,142 --> 00:04:23,399 That's the UK. 83 00:04:23,423 --> 00:04:28,644 The population density of the UK is 250 people per square kilometer. 84 00:04:28,668 --> 00:04:31,930 I'm now going to show you other countries by these same two measures. 85 00:04:31,954 --> 00:04:35,090 On the vertical axis, I'm going to show you how many lightbulbs -- 86 00:04:35,114 --> 00:04:37,554 what our energy consumption per person is. 87 00:04:37,578 --> 00:04:39,697 We're at 125 lightbulbs per person, 88 00:04:39,721 --> 00:04:43,335 and that little blue dot there is showing you the land area 89 00:04:43,359 --> 00:04:45,049 of the United Kingdom. 90 00:04:45,073 --> 00:04:47,862 The population density is on the horizontal axis, 91 00:04:47,886 --> 00:04:50,609 and we're 250 people per square kilometer. 92 00:04:50,633 --> 00:04:53,202 Let's add European countries in blue, 93 00:04:53,226 --> 00:04:55,727 and you can see there's quite a variety. 94 00:04:55,751 --> 00:04:58,828 I should emphasize, both of these axes are logarithmic; 95 00:04:58,852 --> 00:05:01,407 as you go from one gray bar to the next gray bar, 96 00:05:01,431 --> 00:05:03,186 you're going up a factor of 10. 97 00:05:04,147 --> 00:05:06,488 Next, let's add Asia in red, 98 00:05:06,512 --> 00:05:08,998 the Middle East and North Africa in green, 99 00:05:10,013 --> 00:05:12,406 sub-Saharan Africa in blue, 100 00:05:13,525 --> 00:05:15,447 black is South America, 101 00:05:16,994 --> 00:05:18,839 purple is Central America, 102 00:05:19,585 --> 00:05:22,388 and then in pukey-yellow, we have North America, 103 00:05:22,412 --> 00:05:24,129 Australia and New Zealand. 104 00:05:25,050 --> 00:05:27,950 You can see the great diversity of population densities 105 00:05:27,974 --> 00:05:30,561 and of per capita consumptions. 106 00:05:30,917 --> 00:05:33,156 Countries are different from each other. 107 00:05:33,180 --> 00:05:36,736 Top left, we have Canada and Australia, with enormous land areas, 108 00:05:36,760 --> 00:05:41,248 very high per capita consumption -- 200 or 300 lightbulbs per person -- 109 00:05:41,272 --> 00:05:44,109 and very low population densities. 110 00:05:44,930 --> 00:05:48,092 Top right: Bahrain has the same energy consumption 111 00:05:48,116 --> 00:05:50,099 per person, roughly, as Canada -- 112 00:05:50,123 --> 00:05:52,365 over 300 lightbulbs per person, 113 00:05:52,389 --> 00:05:55,411 but their population density is a factor of 300 times greater, 114 00:05:55,435 --> 00:05:57,264 1,000 people per square kilometer. 115 00:05:57,288 --> 00:06:02,165 Bottom right: Bangladesh has the same population density as Bahrain, 116 00:06:02,189 --> 00:06:05,040 but consumes 100 times less per person. 117 00:06:05,779 --> 00:06:08,262 Bottom left: well, there's no one. 118 00:06:08,286 --> 00:06:10,382 But there used to be a whole load of people. 119 00:06:10,406 --> 00:06:12,359 Here's another message from this diagram. 120 00:06:12,383 --> 00:06:15,749 I've added on little blue tails behind Sudan, Libya, 121 00:06:15,773 --> 00:06:17,284 China, India, Bangladesh. 122 00:06:17,308 --> 00:06:19,443 That's 15 years of progress. 123 00:06:19,467 --> 00:06:21,988 Where were they 15 years ago, and where are they now? 124 00:06:22,012 --> 00:06:23,170 And the message is, 125 00:06:23,194 --> 00:06:26,067 most countries are going to the right, and they're going up. 126 00:06:26,091 --> 00:06:28,238 Up and to the right: bigger population density 127 00:06:28,262 --> 00:06:30,202 and higher per capita consumption. 128 00:06:30,226 --> 00:06:34,181 So, we may be off in the top right-hand corner, slightly unusual, 129 00:06:34,205 --> 00:06:36,592 the United Kingdom accompanied by Germany, 130 00:06:36,616 --> 00:06:38,586 Japan, South Korea, the Netherlands, 131 00:06:38,610 --> 00:06:40,975 and a bunch of other slightly odd countries, 132 00:06:40,999 --> 00:06:45,304 but many other countries are coming up and to the right to join us. 133 00:06:45,328 --> 00:06:47,371 So we're a picture, if you like, 134 00:06:47,395 --> 00:06:49,370 of what the future energy consumption 135 00:06:49,394 --> 00:06:52,166 might be looking like in other countries, too. 136 00:06:53,573 --> 00:06:56,492 I've also added in this diagram now some pink lines 137 00:06:56,516 --> 00:06:58,405 that go down and to the right. 138 00:06:58,429 --> 00:07:02,270 Those are lines of equal power consumption per unit area, 139 00:07:02,294 --> 00:07:04,365 which I measure in watts per square meter. 140 00:07:04,389 --> 00:07:08,236 So, for example, the middle line there, 0.1 watts per square meter, 141 00:07:08,260 --> 00:07:12,112 is the energy consumption per unit area of Saudi Arabia, 142 00:07:12,136 --> 00:07:16,317 Norway, Mexico in purple, and Bangladesh 15 years ago. 143 00:07:17,337 --> 00:07:20,526 Half of the world's population lives in countries 144 00:07:20,550 --> 00:07:22,655 that are already above that line. 145 00:07:24,410 --> 00:07:29,602 The United Kingdom is consuming 1.25 watts per square meter. 146 00:07:29,626 --> 00:07:32,648 So is Germany, and Japan is consuming a bit more. 147 00:07:33,958 --> 00:07:37,888 So, let's now say why this is relevant. 148 00:07:37,912 --> 00:07:39,299 Why is it relevant? 149 00:07:39,323 --> 00:07:42,189 Well, we can measure renewables in the same units 150 00:07:42,213 --> 00:07:45,018 and other forms of power production in the same units. 151 00:07:45,328 --> 00:07:48,071 Renewables is one of the leading ideas 152 00:07:48,095 --> 00:07:52,069 for how we could get off our 90 percent fossil-fuel habit. 153 00:07:52,402 --> 00:07:53,814 So here come some renewables. 154 00:07:53,838 --> 00:07:56,498 Energy crops deliver half a watt per square meter 155 00:07:56,522 --> 00:07:57,879 in European climates. 156 00:07:59,309 --> 00:08:00,460 What does that mean? 157 00:08:00,484 --> 00:08:02,466 You might have anticipated that result, 158 00:08:02,490 --> 00:08:05,678 given what I told you about the biofuel plantation a moment ago. 159 00:08:05,702 --> 00:08:08,698 Well, we consume 1.25 watts per square meter. 160 00:08:08,722 --> 00:08:09,879 What this means is, 161 00:08:09,903 --> 00:08:13,290 even if you covered the whole of the United Kingdom with energy crops, 162 00:08:13,314 --> 00:08:16,122 you couldn't match today's energy consumption. 163 00:08:17,236 --> 00:08:21,070 Wind power produces a bit more -- 2.5 watts per square meter. 164 00:08:21,094 --> 00:08:25,107 But that's only twice as big as 1.25 watts per square meter. 165 00:08:25,643 --> 00:08:29,765 So that means if you wanted, literally, to produce total energy consumption 166 00:08:29,789 --> 00:08:32,020 in all forms, on average, from wind farms, 167 00:08:32,044 --> 00:08:34,676 you need wind farms half the area of the UK. 168 00:08:36,179 --> 00:08:39,600 I've got data to back up all these assertions, by the way. 169 00:08:40,243 --> 00:08:42,152 Next, let's look at solar power. 170 00:08:42,719 --> 00:08:44,737 Solar panels, when you put them on a roof, 171 00:08:44,761 --> 00:08:49,076 deliver about 20 watts per square meter in England. 172 00:08:50,500 --> 00:08:52,882 If you really want to get a lot from solar panels, 173 00:08:52,906 --> 00:08:55,710 you need to adopt the traditional Bavarian farming method, 174 00:08:55,734 --> 00:08:57,085 where you leap off the roof, 175 00:08:57,109 --> 00:08:59,613 and coat the countryside with solar panels, too. 176 00:08:59,637 --> 00:09:02,833 Solar parks, because of the gaps between the panels, deliver less. 177 00:09:02,857 --> 00:09:06,264 They deliver about 5 watts per square meter of land area. 178 00:09:06,288 --> 00:09:09,590 And here's a solar park in Vermont, with real data, 179 00:09:09,614 --> 00:09:12,138 delivering 4.2 watts per square meter. 180 00:09:12,661 --> 00:09:15,568 Remember where we are, 1.25 watts per square meter, 181 00:09:15,592 --> 00:09:18,643 wind farms 2.5, solar parks about five. 182 00:09:19,497 --> 00:09:22,927 So whichever of those renewables you pick, 183 00:09:22,951 --> 00:09:26,500 the message is, whatever mix of those renewables you're using, 184 00:09:26,524 --> 00:09:28,705 if you want to power the UK on them, 185 00:09:28,729 --> 00:09:30,830 you're going to need to cover something like 186 00:09:30,854 --> 00:09:33,712 20 percent or 25 percent of the country 187 00:09:33,736 --> 00:09:35,375 with those renewables. 188 00:09:35,750 --> 00:09:39,262 I'm not saying that's a bad idea; we just need to understand the numbers. 189 00:09:39,286 --> 00:09:41,858 I'm absolutely not anti-renewables. I love renewables. 190 00:09:41,882 --> 00:09:43,518 But I'm also pro-arithmetic. 191 00:09:43,542 --> 00:09:45,247 (Laughter) 192 00:09:45,271 --> 00:09:49,403 Concentrating solar power in deserts delivers larger powers per unit area, 193 00:09:49,427 --> 00:09:51,778 because you don't have the problem of clouds. 194 00:09:51,802 --> 00:09:55,006 So, this facility delivers 14 watts per square meter; 195 00:09:55,030 --> 00:09:56,741 this one 10 watts per square meter; 196 00:09:56,765 --> 00:09:59,521 and this one in Spain, 5 watts per square meter. 197 00:09:59,545 --> 00:10:01,719 Being generous to concentrating solar power, 198 00:10:01,743 --> 00:10:05,407 I think it's perfectly credible it could deliver 20 watts per square meter. 199 00:10:05,431 --> 00:10:06,597 So that's nice. 200 00:10:06,621 --> 00:10:09,173 Of course, Britain doesn't have any deserts. 201 00:10:09,555 --> 00:10:10,711 Yet. 202 00:10:10,735 --> 00:10:12,420 (Laughter) 203 00:10:12,444 --> 00:10:14,809 So here's a summary so far: 204 00:10:15,635 --> 00:10:18,259 All renewables, much as I love them, are diffuse. 205 00:10:18,283 --> 00:10:20,322 They all have a small power per unit area, 206 00:10:20,346 --> 00:10:22,141 and we have to live with that fact. 207 00:10:22,871 --> 00:10:28,163 And that means, if you do want renewables to make a substantial difference 208 00:10:28,187 --> 00:10:29,975 for a country like the United Kingdom 209 00:10:29,999 --> 00:10:32,091 on the scale of today's consumption, 210 00:10:32,115 --> 00:10:36,516 you need to be imagining renewable facilities that are country-sized. 211 00:10:36,540 --> 00:10:37,853 Not the entire country, 212 00:10:37,877 --> 00:10:41,244 but a fraction of the country, a substantial fraction. 213 00:10:42,284 --> 00:10:44,831 There are other options for generating power as well, 214 00:10:44,855 --> 00:10:46,539 which don't involve fossil fuels. 215 00:10:46,563 --> 00:10:49,718 So there's nuclear power, and on this ordinance survey map, 216 00:10:49,742 --> 00:10:53,481 you can see there's a Sizewell B inside a blue square kilometer. 217 00:10:53,505 --> 00:10:55,508 That's one gigawatt in a square kilometer, 218 00:10:55,532 --> 00:10:57,957 which works out to 1,000 watts per square meter. 219 00:10:57,981 --> 00:11:00,117 So by this particular metric, 220 00:11:00,141 --> 00:11:05,336 nuclear power isn't as intrusive as renewables. 221 00:11:05,922 --> 00:11:07,917 Of course, other metrics matter, too, 222 00:11:07,941 --> 00:11:10,651 and nuclear power has all sorts of popularity problems. 223 00:11:11,564 --> 00:11:13,601 But the same goes for renewables as well. 224 00:11:13,625 --> 00:11:16,453 Here's a photograph of a consultation exercise in full swing 225 00:11:16,477 --> 00:11:19,165 in the little town of Penicuik just outside Edinburgh, 226 00:11:19,189 --> 00:11:21,683 and you can see the children of Penicuik celebrating 227 00:11:21,707 --> 00:11:24,077 the burning of the effigy of the windmill. 228 00:11:24,101 --> 00:11:25,260 So -- 229 00:11:25,284 --> 00:11:26,334 (Laughter) 230 00:11:26,358 --> 00:11:27,687 People are anti-everything, 231 00:11:27,711 --> 00:11:30,369 and we've got to keep all the options on the table. 232 00:11:30,928 --> 00:11:34,567 What can a country like the UK do on the supply side? 233 00:11:34,591 --> 00:11:37,510 Well, the options are, I'd say, these three: 234 00:11:37,534 --> 00:11:38,712 power renewables, 235 00:11:38,736 --> 00:11:42,447 and recognizing that they need to be close to country-sized; 236 00:11:42,471 --> 00:11:43,717 other people's renewables, 237 00:11:43,741 --> 00:11:45,868 so we could go back and talk very politely 238 00:11:45,892 --> 00:11:48,929 to the people in the top left-hand side of the diagram and say, 239 00:11:48,953 --> 00:11:51,204 "Uh, we don't want renewables in our backyard, 240 00:11:51,228 --> 00:11:53,822 but, um, please could we put them in yours instead?" 241 00:11:53,846 --> 00:11:55,811 And that's a serious option. 242 00:11:55,835 --> 00:11:59,419 It's a way for the world to handle this issue. 243 00:11:59,443 --> 00:12:03,575 So countries like Australia, Russia, Libya, Kazakhstan, 244 00:12:03,599 --> 00:12:06,599 could be our best friends for renewable production. 245 00:12:07,956 --> 00:12:09,992 And a third option is nuclear power. 246 00:12:10,016 --> 00:12:12,232 So that's some supply-side options. 247 00:12:12,256 --> 00:12:15,548 In addition to the supply levers that we can push -- 248 00:12:15,572 --> 00:12:17,607 and remember, we need large amounts, 249 00:12:17,631 --> 00:12:21,158 because at the moment, we get 90 percent of our energy from fossil fuels -- 250 00:12:21,182 --> 00:12:22,542 in addition to those levers, 251 00:12:22,566 --> 00:12:25,617 we could talk about other ways of solving this issue. 252 00:12:25,641 --> 00:12:29,037 Namely, we could reduce demand, and that means reducing population -- 253 00:12:29,061 --> 00:12:30,876 I'm not sure how to do that -- 254 00:12:30,900 --> 00:12:33,712 or reducing per capita consumption. 255 00:12:33,736 --> 00:12:36,199 So let's talk about three more big levers 256 00:12:36,223 --> 00:12:38,549 that could really help on the consumption side. 257 00:12:38,573 --> 00:12:39,727 First, transport. 258 00:12:39,751 --> 00:12:41,294 Here are the physics principles 259 00:12:41,318 --> 00:12:44,368 that tell you how to reduce the energy consumption of transport. 260 00:12:44,392 --> 00:12:46,838 People often say, "Technology can answer everything. 261 00:12:46,862 --> 00:12:49,638 We can make vehicles that are 100 times more efficient." 262 00:12:49,662 --> 00:12:51,642 And that's almost true. Let me show you. 263 00:12:51,666 --> 00:12:54,134 The energy consumption of this typical tank here 264 00:12:54,158 --> 00:12:57,582 is 80 kilowatt hours per hundred person kilometers. 265 00:12:57,606 --> 00:13:01,401 That's the average European car. 266 00:13:01,947 --> 00:13:03,098 Eighty kilowatt hours. 267 00:13:03,122 --> 00:13:05,210 Can we make something 100 times better 268 00:13:05,234 --> 00:13:07,547 by applying the physics principles I just listed? 269 00:13:07,571 --> 00:13:09,214 Yes. Here it is. It's the bicycle. 270 00:13:09,238 --> 00:13:11,884 It's 80 times better in energy consumption, 271 00:13:11,908 --> 00:13:14,132 and it's powered by biofuel, by Weetabix. 272 00:13:14,156 --> 00:13:16,294 (Laughter) 273 00:13:16,318 --> 00:13:18,185 And there are other options in between, 274 00:13:18,209 --> 00:13:20,336 because maybe the lady in the tank would say, 275 00:13:20,360 --> 00:13:23,516 "No, that's a lifestyle change. Don't change my lifestyle, please." 276 00:13:23,540 --> 00:13:27,187 We could persuade her to take a train, still a lot more efficient than a car, 277 00:13:27,211 --> 00:13:28,986 but that might be a lifestyle change. 278 00:13:29,010 --> 00:13:30,594 Or there's the EcoCAR, top-left. 279 00:13:30,618 --> 00:13:34,353 It comfortably accommodates one teenager and it's shorter than a traffic cone, 280 00:13:34,377 --> 00:13:36,413 and it's almost as efficient as a bicycle, 281 00:13:36,437 --> 00:13:39,477 as long as you drive it at 15 miles per hour. 282 00:13:39,899 --> 00:13:42,126 In between, perhaps some more realistic options 283 00:13:42,150 --> 00:13:45,115 on the transport lever are electric vehicles, 284 00:13:45,139 --> 00:13:47,518 so electric bikes and electric cars in the middle, 285 00:13:47,542 --> 00:13:52,568 perhaps four times as energy efficient as the standard petrol-powered tank. 286 00:13:53,378 --> 00:13:55,276 Next, there's the heating lever. 287 00:13:55,300 --> 00:13:58,791 Heating is a third of our energy consumption in Britain, 288 00:13:58,815 --> 00:14:00,888 and quite a lot of that is going into homes 289 00:14:00,912 --> 00:14:02,295 and other buildings, 290 00:14:02,319 --> 00:14:04,296 doing space heating and water heating. 291 00:14:04,320 --> 00:14:06,604 So here's a typical crappy British house. 292 00:14:06,628 --> 00:14:09,347 It's my house, with a Ferrari out front. 293 00:14:09,371 --> 00:14:10,436 (Laughter) 294 00:14:10,460 --> 00:14:11,613 What can we do to it? 295 00:14:11,637 --> 00:14:15,298 Well, the laws of physics are written up there, 296 00:14:15,322 --> 00:14:20,570 which describe how the power consumption for heating 297 00:14:20,594 --> 00:14:22,502 is driven by the things you can control. 298 00:14:22,526 --> 00:14:25,420 The things you can control are the temperature difference 299 00:14:25,444 --> 00:14:27,127 between the inside and the outside. 300 00:14:27,151 --> 00:14:29,765 There's this remarkable technology called a thermostat: 301 00:14:29,789 --> 00:14:31,525 you grasp it, rotate it to the left, 302 00:14:31,549 --> 00:14:34,078 and your energy consumption in the home will decrease. 303 00:14:34,102 --> 00:14:37,205 I've tried it. It works. Some people call it a lifestyle change. 304 00:14:37,229 --> 00:14:38,313 (Laughter) 305 00:14:38,337 --> 00:14:41,817 You can also get the fluff men in to reduce the leakiness 306 00:14:41,841 --> 00:14:44,810 of your building -- put fluff in the walls, fluff in the roof, 307 00:14:44,834 --> 00:14:46,628 a new front door, and so forth. 308 00:14:48,052 --> 00:14:50,637 The sad truth is, this will save you money. 309 00:14:50,661 --> 00:14:52,001 That's not sad, that's good. 310 00:14:52,025 --> 00:14:53,203 But the sad truth is, 311 00:14:53,227 --> 00:14:56,426 it'll only get about 25 percent of the leakiness of your building 312 00:14:56,450 --> 00:14:59,145 if you do these things, which are good ideas. 313 00:14:59,169 --> 00:15:02,428 If you really want to get a bit closer to Swedish building standards 314 00:15:02,452 --> 00:15:04,102 with a crappy house like this, 315 00:15:04,126 --> 00:15:07,572 you need to be putting external insulation on the building, 316 00:15:07,596 --> 00:15:09,868 as shown by this block of flats in London. 317 00:15:11,252 --> 00:15:14,257 You can also deliver heat more efficiently using heat pumps, 318 00:15:14,281 --> 00:15:17,751 which use a smaller bit of high-grade energy like electricity 319 00:15:17,775 --> 00:15:20,340 to move heat from your garden into your house. 320 00:15:21,276 --> 00:15:23,646 The third demand-side option I want to talk about, 321 00:15:23,670 --> 00:15:26,816 the third way to reduce energy consumption is: read your meters. 322 00:15:26,840 --> 00:15:28,669 People talk a lot about smart meters, 323 00:15:28,693 --> 00:15:30,040 but you can do it yourself. 324 00:15:30,064 --> 00:15:31,989 Use your own eyes and be smart. 325 00:15:32,013 --> 00:15:35,676 Read your meter, and if you're anything like me, it'll change your life. 326 00:15:35,700 --> 00:15:37,132 Here's a graph I made. 327 00:15:37,156 --> 00:15:39,300 I was writing a book about sustainable energy, 328 00:15:39,324 --> 00:15:40,478 and a friend asked me, 329 00:15:40,502 --> 00:15:42,316 "How much energy do you use at home?" 330 00:15:42,340 --> 00:15:44,360 I was embarrassed; I didn't actually know. 331 00:15:44,384 --> 00:15:46,585 And so I started reading the meter every week. 332 00:15:46,609 --> 00:15:50,401 The old meter readings are shown in the top half of the graph, 333 00:15:50,425 --> 00:15:52,650 and then 2007 is shown in green at the bottom. 334 00:15:52,674 --> 00:15:54,996 That was when I was reading the meter every week. 335 00:15:55,020 --> 00:15:56,186 And my life changed, 336 00:15:56,210 --> 00:15:59,565 because I started doing experiments and seeing what made a difference. 337 00:15:59,589 --> 00:16:00,994 My gas consumption plummeted, 338 00:16:01,018 --> 00:16:03,237 because I started tinkering with the thermostat 339 00:16:03,261 --> 00:16:05,060 and the timing on the heating system, 340 00:16:05,084 --> 00:16:07,297 and I knocked more than half off my gas bills. 341 00:16:07,321 --> 00:16:10,204 There's a similar story for my electricity consumption, 342 00:16:10,228 --> 00:16:13,790 where switching off the DVD players, the stereos, 343 00:16:13,814 --> 00:16:16,608 the computer peripherals that were on all the time, 344 00:16:16,632 --> 00:16:18,827 and just switching them on when I needed them, 345 00:16:18,851 --> 00:16:21,476 knocked another third off my electricity bills, too. 346 00:16:22,742 --> 00:16:24,508 So we need a plan that adds up. 347 00:16:24,532 --> 00:16:27,122 I've described for you six big levers. 348 00:16:27,146 --> 00:16:28,312 We need big action, 349 00:16:28,336 --> 00:16:31,098 because we get 90 percent of our energy from fossil fuels, 350 00:16:31,122 --> 00:16:35,168 and so you need to push hard on most, if not all, of these levers. 351 00:16:35,888 --> 00:16:38,174 Most of these levers have popularity problems, 352 00:16:38,198 --> 00:16:41,864 and if there is a lever you don't like the use of, 353 00:16:41,888 --> 00:16:45,705 well, please do bear in mind that means you need even stronger effort 354 00:16:45,729 --> 00:16:47,610 on the other levers. 355 00:16:48,056 --> 00:16:51,207 So I'm a strong advocate of having grown-up conversations 356 00:16:51,231 --> 00:16:53,492 that are based on numbers and facts. 357 00:16:53,516 --> 00:16:57,292 And I want to close with this map that just visualizes for you 358 00:16:57,316 --> 00:17:00,853 the requirement of land and so forth 359 00:17:00,877 --> 00:17:03,941 in order to get just 16 lightbulbs per person 360 00:17:03,965 --> 00:17:06,653 from four of the big possible sources. 361 00:17:07,074 --> 00:17:10,233 So, if you wanted to get 16 lightbulbs -- 362 00:17:10,258 --> 00:17:14,579 remember, today our total energy consumption is 125 lightbulbs' worth -- 363 00:17:14,603 --> 00:17:16,826 if you wanted 16 from wind, 364 00:17:16,849 --> 00:17:19,676 this map visualizes a solution for the UK. 365 00:17:19,701 --> 00:17:23,858 It's got 160 wind farms, each 100 square kilometers in size, 366 00:17:23,882 --> 00:17:27,766 and that would be a twentyfold increase over today's amount of wind. 367 00:17:27,790 --> 00:17:30,698 Nuclear power: to get 16 lightbulbs per person, 368 00:17:30,722 --> 00:17:33,811 you'd need two gigawatts at each of the purple dots on the map. 369 00:17:33,835 --> 00:17:38,018 That's a fourfold increase over today's levels of nuclear power. 370 00:17:38,669 --> 00:17:41,367 Biomass: to get 16 lightbulbs per person, 371 00:17:41,391 --> 00:17:45,653 you'd need a land area something like three and a half Wales' worth, 372 00:17:46,423 --> 00:17:49,005 either in our country, or in someone else's country, 373 00:17:49,029 --> 00:17:51,072 possibly Ireland, possibly somewhere else. 374 00:17:51,096 --> 00:17:52,175 (Laughter) 375 00:17:52,199 --> 00:17:53,990 And a fourth supply-side option: 376 00:17:54,014 --> 00:17:56,731 concentrating solar power in other people's deserts. 377 00:17:57,154 --> 00:17:59,593 If you wanted to get 16 lightbulbs' worth, 378 00:17:59,617 --> 00:18:02,632 then we're talking about these eight hexagons 379 00:18:02,656 --> 00:18:03,967 down at the bottom right. 380 00:18:03,991 --> 00:18:08,216 The total area of those hexagons is two Greater London's worth 381 00:18:08,240 --> 00:18:10,329 of someone else's Sahara, 382 00:18:10,353 --> 00:18:13,360 and you'll need power lines all the way across Spain and France 383 00:18:13,384 --> 00:18:16,754 to bring the power from the Sahara to Surrey. 384 00:18:17,195 --> 00:18:18,345 (Laughter) 385 00:18:18,369 --> 00:18:19,963 We need a plan that adds up. 386 00:18:20,895 --> 00:18:23,397 We need to stop shouting and start talking. 387 00:18:24,809 --> 00:18:29,032 And if we can have a grown-up conversation, 388 00:18:29,056 --> 00:18:31,517 make a plan that adds up and get building, 389 00:18:31,541 --> 00:18:34,545 maybe this low-carbon revolution will actually be fun. 390 00:18:34,569 --> 00:18:36,307 Thank you very much for listening. 391 00:18:36,331 --> 00:18:38,837 (Applause)