A new animation has been released claiming that the link between rising consumption and climate change is being ignored by the UK government.

The short film ‘Carbon Omissions’ was produced by the Public Interest Research Centre (PIRC), narrated by environmental writer George Monbiot and animated by Leo Murray. It comes ahead of a new report from the Committee on Climate Change, which is expected to highlight how consumption emissions are likely to rise, and how government policy should respond to the issue.

The animation begins by stating that over the last 20 years, the UK government has told three ‘lies’ about climate change. These are:

• that UK carbon emissions have been successfully cut (the last government said this country cut greenhouse gas emissions by 19 per cent between 1990 and 2008);
• that the UK government is doing ‘everything it can’ to tackle climate change, and that current consumption levels can remain unchanged; and
• that increasing levels of consumption lead to greater levels of happiness.

The animation contends, however, that none of these assertions are true.

With regards to the first assertion, the animation claims that calculations of current emission levels only consider how much carbon dioxide is produced within the UK’s borders. It claims that once the country’s imports are taken into account, UK emissions have not fallen by 19 per cent (as claimed by the last government), but have in fact risen by 20 per cent over the past 20 years. This is because rising levels of consumption in the UK have led to greater demand for imports, resulting in rising levels of emissions involved in manufacturing and transport.

Secondly, the animation alleges that the government ‘hasn’t done nearly enough [to tackle climate change], even though it has known the true picture about our rising emissions for years’. It further states that the UK government has blamed nations such as China for rising emissions, when high consumption levels in the UK fuel these emission levels in the first place.

Finally, the animation contests what it states is the government’s claim that increased consumption leads to increased happiness.

Government must ‘get serious’ on consumption

The animation quotes a statement from the Energy and Climate Change Committee, which argued that ‘the UK’s consumption cannot continue to rise indefinitely… if it is to make an effective contribution to a global reduction in greenhouse gas emissions’.

The most important point, the animation contends, is that ‘the government needs to own up to our rising emissions, and take responsibility for tackling the environmental impacts of what the UK consumes’.

The release of the animation coincided with an article by George Monbiot, which argued that it's time to 'stop hiding behind recycling' and admit current levels of human consumption are unsustainable. He claimed this is a problem that ‘we have been avoiding for much too long’.

He continued: ‘The impossibility of sustaining this system of endless, pointless consumption without the continued erosion of the living planet and the future prospects of humankind, is the conversation we will not have.

‘By considering only our territorial emissions, we make the impacts of our escalating consumption disappear in a puff of black smoke: we have offshored the problem, and our perceptions of it.’

The animation forms part of the Carbon Omissions project, which included a event in London on 16 April. The event saw several figures in the environmental and sustainability sector, including Green Party MP Caroline Lucas and Guy Shrubsole of Friends of the Earth, speak about ‘consumption, climate change, inequality and the lives we'd like to lead’.

Those behind the Carbon Omissions event told Resource that they hoped the project would convince the government to ‘get serious’ and ‘take responsibility on emissions’. In addition, they stated that they hoped that as a consequence, people would start to think more about the impact their consumption has on the environment.

Watch the Carbon Omissions animation.