Professor Ian Walker:

To add to that, there is a real lesson from the mouvement des gilets jaunesin terms of readiness. I have been to several workshops and conferences with titles along the lines of "Is Driving the New Tobacco?" We can learn from this. Ireland has had a smoking ban since 2004 and we got one about the same time. Most European countries have got some sort of smoking ban in public places. I am pretty sure that all of these were passed without much complaint, which stands in strong contrast to the French yellow jacket protests in response to possible restrictions on driving. I would argue that this shows pretty strongly that, when those smoking bans were introduced, people had been readied and prepared for the change in a way that every government has completely failed to do in respect of climate behaviours such as flying, driving and agriculture. There could not be a better indication of how important it is that Government action and messaging changes now. It is already 20 years too late but that change is urgent if we are to begin this process of preparing people. There needs to be a consistency of messaging that certain things are a problem and need to be reduced and stopped. The incentives and disincentives we have talked about need to be put in place. It needs to happen quickly and there needs to be consistent messaging from right across the Government.