Professor Lorraine Whitmarsh, University of Cardiff: What we buy

Tim: Okay. Good afternoon, everyone. Welcome back and welcome back to the live stream as well. So this is the grand unveil. You get to hear which topic you're gonna be focusing on for this weekend and the third weekend. Just to reiterate, all the topics are good so nobody loses out of this on. We've got a fantastic panel this afternoon and a fantastic panel tomorrow morning as well. But the topic you're gonna be focusing on is actually two topics. So you get double the joy. So, you're gonna be looking at the issue of kind of what we buy and then secondly, food, farming and land use. So this afternoon, we're gonna focus on the first of those. So we're gonna hear a panel on what we buy. And then tomorrow morning, we're gonna look at the second of those around food, farming and land use. So I'm gonna hand over to Lorraine now, who is our expert lead. Who is going to be working with us throughout the two weekends on these topics, and she's gonna introduce a bit about what we're going to cover. Just see if I can put this down over there.

Lorraine Whitmarsh: Thanks, Tim and hello, everyone. You haven't heard from me yet so good to meet you. Yeah. So as you heard, you're in the what we buy and the food, farming and land use topics. And I do not think you're going to be bored in here. Honestly. We've got some absolutely brilliant speakers, and I think these are topics as well that we can all really relate to. These are things that affect our day to day life in terms of what we buy and definitely the food and the land around us. These are all really big issues I think we're going to be engaging with. And so we've divided it into two, as you can see. So this afternoon we're going to talk about what we buy. And tomorrow morning, it'll be the food, farming and land use. And just briefly, before I get into a little bit of the detail of what we're going to cover in those two sessions, I think it's helpful just to put these topics in the context of where all our greenhouse gas emissions come from and Mike, who will present in a minute, will give you a lot more detail about this, but I did just want to flag the fact that this is this is have you come across the idea of a carbon footprint? This is sort of, you know, all of the greenhouse gas emissions that we that we emit where they come from, basically. So this is the average UK carbon footprint, and you can see that basically about 1/4 of our emissions come from food alone. So that's what we'll be talking about tomorrow and then a good proportion of the rest of the pie, which is kind of home and accommodation. So that includes your own home. But also, when you stay in a hotel like this as well. Travel, different travel modes and ways of getting around and then everything else, which is sort of it is everything else. It's schools and hospitals and cinemas and so on. We're going to be covering actually, most of those three topics those 3/4 actually going to be kind of touched on this afternoon. So you're really getting to grips with an enormous amount of stuff today and tomorrow.

So in terms of the first panel, the first topic, what we buy, that's this afternoon, we're going to be talking about things we buy, some of which might be a really big purchases that some of us might make, like our home or a car through to other things like clothes, electronics, appliances through to more kind of day to day, things like, you know, toothbrushes and bin liners. But also not just the physical things. To some extent, it will also be about the things you can't sort of hold directly physical things like insurance or a Netflix subscription. Those things also produce carbon emissions, so we'll touch on some of those things, too. So it's it's thinking about the energy that goes into not just running things like the car, like your car, the petrol or diesel that runs that you used to run the car that causes greenhouse gas emissions, but also very much the energy that goes into making those things like the car itself, how the materials have to come out of the ground and be kind of manufactured to produce those goods. As I've said, we'll be talking about food tomorrow as a separate thing. So today is everything else that we might buy, and we have five speakers this afternoon who will talk about a bit more detail about where our emissions come from in terms of what we buy and what sorts of products or services cause those emissions and also how carbon footprint might vary amongst different types of people. So we don't all have an average carbon footprint some of us emit more or from have different sorts of things that we buy that emit more than others and then we'll be thinking about how we can reduce our emissions from what we buy, for example, by buying less stuff, using things for longer or getting things repaired, sharing things some things instead of maybe owning some things turning old things into new products and recycling, making things, using less materials or less energy as well. So all of those sorts of things you'll hear more about this afternoon, and then tomorrow we're covering food, farming and land use, so this obviously covers what we eat. But it also covers how we use the land, and you heard a bit about this already so far, so it will cover food related ways in which we use the land like growing crops and grazing livestock. But it will cover other things as well, like woodland and peat land, which help actually absorb carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere. And the reason that we're looking at food and land together, it is quite a big topic. But that's because farming uses at the moment the majority of the land in the UK and so if we make decisions about our diet and change the sorts of things that we buy, or the sorts of things that we eat or how much we eat, that will have implications for how much land is available for agriculture versus other things. So you'll hear more about that. And so tomorrow we have six speakers who will talk about where our emissions from food and land come from and how we can reduce them. Through things like changes in our behaviour as consumers. So that might include choosing food that's lower carbon and also kind of reducing food waste will be another one as well. Changing food production and supply so this is thinking more about what business and supermarkets and farmers can do to reduce emissions and then also will be thinking a bit about the other sorts of ways in which we can use land to reduce emissions or even take carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere. Just a quick reminder that Net zero laws in this country really are focused on things that we make and do in this country and they don't actually strictly cover imports, things that come into the country and actually, as you'll hear quite a lot of the things that we buy and also the food that we buy comes from overseas. It's imported from other countries and so what we want to try and capture in these discussions and this debate is not just focused on things that we make in this country, but also thinking about making sure that we don't make emissions worse in other countries. So we want to try and have a bit more of a sort of joined up approach. And other things to bear in mind, well, in weekend one, you came up with some brilliant principles that I think you'll be kind of focusing on when you're considering different options and so all of those sorts of principles, like informing people, fairness, leadership, thinking about natural resources, future proofing and so on. I guess it's kind of useful as you're listening to the speakers, bearing in mind some of those sorts of principles that you said are important to you and so evaluating the policy options that you hear in light of those. And you'll also hear about kind of related implications of policy choices in terms of things like employment. So if we buy less of one type of thing, which might mean then those those businesses might change or people might go out of business, what would that mean for jobs? And how do we ensure fairness in terms of transition to a low carbon economy? Similarly, a sort of fairness issue as well is around kind of thinking about how different groups and regions in the U.K. might be impacted in different ways by the sorts of policies that we're thinking about and again, how can we do this in a fair way so that some aren't disadvantaged and we've heard as well about the U.K's climate is changing So as we're thinking about policy choices, so this might be particularly relevant for the food and land use. As our climate is getting warmer and there are more extreme events, how will the policies that we're thinking about be relevant and work under that future climate? We'll hear a bit about implications for natural resources as well. And also some of the some of the side benefits, additional benefits from carbon, low carbon or net zero policies. So they may be health benefits from some of the dietary changes that we're talking about, for example, or ways in which you might save money through changing the way in which we buy things. And I think the final thing just to say is that as a reminder, what many of the what many of the speakers will be touching on is talking about specific policy options. So how we can actually get to net zero. So a policy is really an action that government can take and that can cover anything from information and advice. So labelling on products, for example, through to more sort of economic measures like taxes or subsidies, to things like regulations and laws where we might even ban some products, for example. But the key thing is this triangle that you saw last weekend, which sort of shows that government can't do this on their own. It's obviously - they are going to be making policies that will influence the sorts of things that both businesses and individuals will do. And depending on which policy we focus on, they might be more focused on business action or more focused on individual action. So there'll be a range of different policies that you'll hear, which will cover that cover that range. So I think that's all from me.

Tim: Great. Thank you very much, Lorraine. So before we jump into the panel, we just want to give you a bit of time at your tables to have a think about how these two topics impact on you, so a bit of time to think about what you buy. So maybe you want to think about the sorts of products you tend to buy. Maybe you want to think about whether you tend to buy things kind of brand new or tend to recycle or get things second hand. And then on the topic of food, farming and land use have a think about kind of what sort of diet do you have? Do you tend to, are you vegan? Do you like to eat meat? Kind of what sort of impacts do these topics have on your everyday life? So I'm gonna give you 15 minutes now to have a conversation with your table about that, and then we will jump into hearing from the panel.