Not read all the comments but here are my thoughts for what they are worth.
I was a bit sceptical about global warming when I was at school. It’s a known fact from arctic ice core samples that Earth has warmed up / cooled down for millions of years, long before human industrial interference. But everything we’ve seen recently points to human interference on a global scale.
Short term - that could mean flooding / droughts & fires / more extreme weather events & storms.
Long term - some areas could become uninhabitable. Potential for famine. Category 6 storms.
Future scenario - you only have to read about Mercury and Venus, our nearest planetary neighbour and hottest planet in the solar system to understand what happens when a runaway greenhouse effect takes hold.
I think it’s easy to blame motorists. Almost a convenient tax. Who can dispute it when we need to save the planet? I’d rather see technology brought in to make petrol & diesel emissions cleaner.
What about improving traffic flow and solutions to ease congestion? The main focus recently has been pedestrian and cyclist safety. Traffic lights on roundabouts? What’s that all about? You only have to look locally. The A585 near Norcross. Constantly busy - has been crying out for a dual carriageway for years, but that would mean widening the bridge and spending money. So they are happy to see us queue. Even the much heralded bypass, 3 decades in the making, is a ridiculous piece of non planning. They are going to shut a perfectly good road, further up. And instead of the bypass coming out at the obvious point near the M55 junction, it exits a little further up the road on an already narrow, busy section. Genius. Blackpool Promenade: 2 lanes on both sides = no problem. Now we see huge queues of standing traffic, especially in peak periods, from the cenotaph all the way to the Pleasure Beach. A failed traffic experiment it will now cost too much to reverse.
Electric cars won’t be the answer. They are impractical for long journeys, take too long to charge, are too expensive to buy, the batteries contain precious metals in short supply. I question what the 2nd hand market looks like. What happens to the old batteries? What recycling is available? Why have the plugs not been standardised yet? And that’s not even touching on the fact the National Grid would fail. Are we going to build X number of power stations to cope with the huge demand? That would be the opposite of carbon neutral.
I expect to see hydrogen cars / cold fusion take over shortly. Why aren’t we all over that bloke who successfully produced strong energy results from compressed air in his shed experiments? Energy from fresh air. Wow. Miniaturise that into cars, etc.
Why is freight not moved more on the railways as it is in so many countries abroad? So many lorries running up & down the motorways that could & should be moved onto the rail network.
Could we expand the rail network again; reopen some of the old lines closed following the infamous 1960’s Beeching report.
Why is our public transport so expensive? Is it time they were Nationalised again - on a not for profit basis? They should be encouraging people to use it, not putting the fares up every 6 months.
Is the western world is at fault for sending so much of its manufacturing to China, India, Poland, Bangladesh, etc. Cheaply made products in countries with scant regard for the environment and unlikely to change that anytime soon. We should put a green tax all on such imports, so manufacturers will be made to consider cleaner alternatives.
Australia’s main energy comes from coal. A country where solar power would be off the chart, still relying on fossil fuels to drive the economy and power homes. Doesn’t get much mention, and it should.
There seems to be a bizarre U.K. obsession with wind farms. The things crop up everywhere. I can only assume some people have got very wealthy from it all. Still no sign of using the one constant daily form of U.K. energy: tidal energy. Where are the tidal barrages in Morecambe Bay, etc? Instead we get wind farms, almost blocking the shipping lanes.
The best form of renewable energy is probably a mix of various solutions.
There was a suggestion we were going to go bold on engineering projects to revitalise the economy. Some of these projects would be ideal and a massive boost towards the provision of clean energy.
I haven’t read the whole thread but a quick jump from beginning to end suggests…
down to save the planet?” Tee shirts and shorts are being printed and sold like hot cakes. 
