How to live well without carbon Roger Levett Partner, LevettTherivel sustainability consultants roge

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How to live well without carbonRoger
LevettPartner, Levett-Therivel sustainability
consultantsroger_at_levett-therivel.fsnet.co.ukKee
le University seminar, 28 March 2007
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Resource productivity a win-win?
Levett-Therivel
Get more economic production/consumption
per unit of resource consumption/waste

• Supports mainstream story on technology,
  innovation, investment, competitiveness etc.
• Eg factor 2 (halving) of car fuel consumption.
• But its not working
• rebound effects fuel efficiency gains taken as
• - warmer homes
• - bigger, heavier, faster cars
• consumption growth swamps savings
• dematerialised activity added, not substitute.

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Easy factor 2s for drivers
Levett-Therivel

• Take a friend
• - halve fuel per passenger km
• Go half as far
• - halve fuel per destination reached
• half as often (eg combine errands)
• - halve fuel per errand
• Cycle or walk
• - factor 100?
• Dont go at all
• - cut fuel per benefit gained
• Lessons
• Behaviour change makes factor 10 realistic
• Eco-efficiency of quality of life
• Not eco-efficiency of economic activity

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Quality of life
Levett-Therivel

• Would be better if
• people could access the same things with less
  expense, hassle, uncertainty
• the old, young, disabled, infirm and poor were
  less excluded
• streets were safer, quieter, cleaner, more
  sociable, less cluttered
• more people got healthy exercise in daily routine
• Thousands werent killed on roads
• So why dont we do it?

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Levett-Therivel
Transport locked in vicious circle
More congestion
Worse bus service
Hostile road environment
Drivers less bike-aware
Less ticket income
More car journeys
School run
Fewer bus passengers
People avoid walking cycling
Unfitness, obesity
Bus safety worries
Car more attractive
Town centres degenerate
Once you have a car, driving is cheapest
Longer journeys
More people buy cars
Shops etc move to car-accessible locations
More diffuse journey patterns
People move to suburbs
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Results of transport choice
Levett-Therivel

• Degraded inner cities
• Doughnut development
• Suburbanized countryside
• Transport poverty
• Higher fuel intensity
• Nobody intended these.
• Market not always Adam Smiths invisible hand
• often invisible elbow (Michael Jacobs).
• Choice doesnt necessarily give us what we want.

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Choice is a lobster pot
Levett-Therivel

• Individual choice got us into our transport mess.
  But it cant get us out again.
• Feedback loops obstruct/neutralise piecemeal
  actions. Hard to drive less because
• local shops arent there any more
• youre splashed at the bus stop by the cars
• which are delaying your bus.

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Levett-Therivel
Possible virtuous circle
Less congestion
Better bus service
Safer road environment
Drivers more bike-aware
More ticket income
Fewer car journeys
School walk
More bus passengers
Walking cycling more attractive
People fitter, healthier
Buses feel safe
hire/club removes perverse incentive
Town centres lively, liveable
More car hire / clubs
Shorter journeys
Fewer people own cars
Shops etc prefer sites accessible without car
Less diffuse travel patterns
People live in town
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Transport what could UK save?
Levett-Therivel
Cycling, walking for half healthy minimum
exercise replace 10 of current driving 90
Home work/e-shopping obviate 10 of trips 80
Local decentralised services cut distances 60
Local centres help multi-purpose trips 40
Shift 40 of remaining trips from car to bus
30 Increase occupancy (all vehicles) by 50
20 Improve average vehicle efficiency by 50
13 Renewable fuels for 13 (of current use)
0 (Many other permutations possible!)
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Multiple interventions needed
Levett-Therivel

• Spatial patterns that reduce distances and
• Local services good enough to obviate choice and
• Good public transport and
• Good walking / cycling environment and
• Charges / restrictions on car use and
• Changes in attitudes, habits, expectations!
• These are interdependenteach is often
  impracticable / ineffective / unacceptable
  without the others.
• Coordinated multiple interventions needed.

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Restrictions can be chosen
Levett-Therivel

• Edinburgh New Town aristocratic speculators
• remediated land
• commissioned trendy masterplan from trophy
  architect
• set intrusive, restrictive, detailed standards
• facades
• sewerage
• wash houses

Guarantee that neighbours would be held to same
standards was an attraction.
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Vauban, Freiburg
Levett-Therivel

• Sustainable new quarter
• car free 5 year olds safe
• parking space (at edge) 10k
• oversubscribed by young families 2nd nursery
• high water, energy standards
• must buy power from on-site CHP system
• on-site shops, clinic.

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Context matters
Levett-Therivel

• Giving up the car is only a small, easy
  incremental step because
• city centre is 15 mins by tram, 20 by car
• most journeys already tram/bus/bike/foot
• no shame using public transport
• its good, so people use it, so it stays good
  virtuous circle
• (Contrast Margaret Thatcher any man who rides a
  bus to work over the age of 30 can count himself
  a failure in life)

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How does Vauban do it?
Levett-Therivel
Dedicated agency (LIFE funded) produced the
masterplan, negotiated deals (eg CHP) and rule
changes (eg parking waiver) Groups of intending
residents commission apartment blocks from
architects / builders no role for commercial
developer City Council would have to remit any
development profit to federal government - so
takes a policy dividend instead
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The social contract
Levett-Therivel

• We each surrender some freedoms to the state in
  return for benefits we cant achieve
  individually
• Rule of law / public safety
• Enforcement of contracts
• Taxes for welfare safety net
• Climate security is a public good now worth
  restricting some liberties for.

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Consumers are also citizens
Levett-Therivel

• As consumers we enjoy
• Cheap energy, food
• Cheap flights
• Driving fast
• Driving in heritage towns / countryside.
• As citizens we may vote to restrict them - but
  keep enjoying them till they are restricted.
• Theres no contradiction just different levels
  of decision.
• The (democratic) state is not an alien enemy -
  its just ourselves acting collectively.

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Efficient inefficiency
Levett-Therivel
Vienna trams must be running to standard service
level before people move in to new satellite
settlement. Inefficient in tram management
terms - but efficient for broader aim of avoiding
car dependence.
Contrast Milton Keynes room left for trams as
soon as enough demand - but there never was.
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Inefficient efficiency
Levett-Therivel
Bus deregulation unwanted competition on busy
routes dissipates monopoly profits that could
have cross-subsidised feeder routes. Railtrack
managers told to drive between stations - cheaper
than buying tickets from Train Operating
Companies Policy (and appraisal) must promote
whole system efficiency of ratio of quality of
life benefits to environmental resource impacts.
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GDP misleads (1)
Levett-Therivel

• It rises when
• a couple break up and have to buy all the
  services they used to give each other
• a motorway is built
• more people drive on it . . .
• with more congestion . . .
• and crashes . . .
• especially with injuries.

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GDP misleads (2)
Levett-Therivel

• It falls when
• a group of elderly immigrants reclaim derelict
  urban gardens to grow exotic organic vegetables
  using tools rescued from skips
• more children can walk or cycle to school
• a community spends less on insurance, CCTV and
  vandalism repairs because there are people about
  on the streets
• a drinking fountain replaces a coke machine

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Purchasing power (dis)parity
Levett-Therivel

• 2/day in rural Sri Lanka buys
• limitless fresh organic fruit / veg
• warm sun
• tranquil, safe roads
• good primary health care
• cohesive community
• walkable access

• 40/day in Streatham buys
• burgers, pizzas, frozen cake, plastic bread
• intermittent bar fire
• Streatham High Road
• NHS rationing by time
• TV, video, films, broadband internet, cultural
  diversity ...

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Life satisfaction GDP growth
Source Strategy Unit, 2003
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What adds to life satisfaction?
Levett-Therivel

• Health
• Work personal control, variety, security, skill
  use, not too stressed
• Relationships, especially marriage
• Leisure, especially social aspects, activity
• Equality
• Governance stability, not too rapid change
• Democracy
• Income relative, and depending on other factors

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The hidden slowness of speed
Levett-Therivel

• Fast lane life
• Drive to
• gym (for workout)
• supermarket
• airport (for escape)
• art class (for expression)
• home for ready meal watching TV

• Slow life
• Cycle
• up a hill...
• to local shop...
• through park...
• home to cook...
• convivial meal with friends

• Depression clinic

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Slow movements
Levett-Therivel
Slow Food Movement cooking and eating can
provide rich creative, social, cultural and
convivial fulfilments - if not madly
rushed. Slow Cities Movement in a city moving
at walking / cycling pace, inhabitants achieve
and enjoy more in a day, not less. - and the
changes that improve quality of life also reduce
environmental consumption / damage.
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Some redefinitions
Levett-Therivel
Productivity of quality of life benefits per unit
of environmental consumption Choice collectively
about the kind of society we want to live in, not
just what we individually buy Efficiency in
overall public-good outcomes per resource input,
not financial return on investment Wellbeing
comes from health, relationships, community,
self-fulfilment, society. Not more money (in
wealthy societies.) Speed of motion doesnt
measure rate of satisfaction.
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What should government do?
Levett-Therivel

• Tax environmental bads - energy use, greenhouse
  gas emissions, waste, pollution - to encourage
  reduction and raise revenue to
• Spend on infrastructure / support for (eg)
  renewable energy, cycling/walking, local food.
• Regulate to
• raise energy efficiency of vehicles, buildings
• give incentives to save energy
• prevent sprawl.
• Plan and coordinate developments and investments
  to make sustainable lifestyles practicable,
  affordable and attractive.

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Some successes
Levett-Therivel

• London congestion charge virtuous circle
• 30 less traffic in the charge zone
• buses faster, more reliable, so better used
• minimal bad effects.
• Coherent urban planning eg Freiburg, Vienna.
• Fuel taxes have saved European countries from US
  levels of waste and vulnerability.
• The English planning system has prevented death
  of towns and wholesale suburbanisation of
  countryside.
• All these can be criticised for inadequacies.
  But wed be far worse off without them.

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Sustainability is politics
Levett-Therivel

• Sustainability is less about environment than
  about the nature of wellbeing and progress, and
  the relationship of individual and collective.
• Sustainability is the latest ground for perennial
  moral, philosophical and political debates
• What is the good life?
• How should people live together in societies?
• But climate change requires us to find better
  answers
• Current good life imperils our future
• Political institutions failing to respond.

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Conclusion
Levett-Therivel
Human security requires developed countries to
cut resource use dramatically. We already know
how we dont need to wait for more technologies
or pilot projects. This can improve quality of
life, if we stop equating growth with quality of
life, and prioritise some collective over
individual choices. Sustainability requires more
taxing, spending, regulating and planning. These
are what governments are for, and the only way
they make a difference.
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This lecture draws on ...
Levett-Therivel
A better choice of choice, Roger Levett with Ian
Christie, Michael Jacobs and Riki Therivel,
Fabian Society, London, 2003 www.fabian-society. o
rg.uk/press_office/display.asp?cat24id177 Leadi
ng the way how local authorities can meet the
challenge of climate change, Local Government
Association, London, 2005 http//www.lga.gov.uk/P
ublication.asp?lsection0idSX7E81-A78309C9 Plann
ing For Urban Sustainability An Ecosystems
Approach, Royal Town Planning Institute, London,
2005 http//www.rtpi.org.uk/ resources/policy-sta
tements/2005/aug/