Here’s a post from Ronald Rovers from last autumn. It’s about carbon budgets and begins:.
Imagine what you would do, if by tomorrow you were allowed only half the CO2 budget you spend normally, including what you would need to reduce your energy demand like insulating the house or buying Solar panels…
What would be your choices? You would become very fast very effective, and consider alternatives: going to work by bicycle, in stead of using a car (in many cases), which reduces CO2 emissions directly and significant. Maybe even move to live close to your job. Eating less meat would be an easy option, and soon accepted. Heating your house: What people do that have little money, is lowering the thermostat , and switch of the heating sooner. Or start heating only one room in stead of a whole house, and putting on a sweater. Most people will recognize this, it was standard when they grew up. And of course limited traveling by air. If immediate action is required, these are fast to implement, and easy to influence on a individual level. Requiring little or no investments, not in money nor in materials or installation equipment. Which in itself would again cause CO2 emissions.
Now the situation is that if we distribute the CO2 which maximum can be emitted to stay under the 2 degrees scenario, equally among the world population, every person in the Netherlands would be half of that what is emitted today. And this counts for many industrialized countries,
It certainly applies to the UK. You can read the rest of this thoughtful blog here.