Sustainable Red Herrings

Mark Price of Waitrose raises an important issue in the Guardian today - www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/mar/10/ethicalliving.waitrose - that of the high carbon emissions associated with refrigeration in the food industry. What could be crazier in an era of concern about climate change than the supermarket practice of leaving freezers and fridges open and then heating the surrounding space to keep shoppers warm? Another dirty word that is too often unspoken is shipping which transports 97% of the world’s trade. It could be virtually carbon-free through the use of solar and wind energy, but which governments are pushing for this? Our government is trying to ignore it altogether by leaving shipping (and aviation) emissions out of the CO2 targets of the Climate Change Bill.

Mr Price is surely right to say that the responsible consumer is struggling to juggle concepts like local, seasonal, organic, unhealthy, fair trade, animal welfare and low carbon. However this should not be left up to individuals. The government needs to set standards (rather than let industry do it as Labour has done these last 11 years) and we need a sustainability label, perhaps using traffic light colours, which allows consumers to understand the impacts of their purchases as quickly as they do price.

Mr Price is however wrong to dismiss plastic bag bans as a red herring. If we are to win the battle against climate change, then the public needs to be persuaded of the need to consume more sustainably. Plastic bags and bottled water are useful symbols which can help to trigger wider lifestyle changes. By contrast, air freighting of fresh produce is in a totally different category because, if present trends continue, aviation will account for more than 100% of our national emissions target by 2050 and, whatever Richard Branson may say, there is no technological solution on the horizon for jet planes.