The UK’s Committee on Climate Change has opened up the debate on how greenhouse gas emissions can be reduced and effectively eliminated over the next 30 years. The question is whether the approach the CCC proposes is the most efficient means of achieving the objective of averting the serious risk of global climate change.

The independent adviser to the government lists a raft of steps that could enable Britain to reduce net emissions to zero by 2050 through regulation or changes in the way we live our lives. These include developing the use of hydrogen, using carbon capture and storage, riding bicycles, driving electric vehicles and eating less beef and lamb.

Strangely, the report neglects to argue for the simplest and possibly most effective means of changing the energy mix: a carbon tax.