Utility Week

UTILITY WEEK | 30TH AUGUST- 5TH SEPTEMBER 2019 | 13 Utility of the Future: climate change continued overleaf A dam Woodhall, an Extinction Rebellion (XR) activ- ist and speaker, was spurred into action aer seeing XR's protests last November, where members occupied five bridges in London. Woodhall, who has spent the past 15 years working with businesses as a sustainability consultant, decided to head along to their next event, recalling that the activists were carrying around a coffin with "our future" written on it. On arrival, he recognised one of the pall- bearers, who asked him if he would mind taking over. "So literally not long from arriv- ing at XR, I was carrying our future on my shoulders. That meaningful start was pretty deep for me," he says. Since those dramatic beginnings, Wood- hall's involvement has grown. Today, he acts as a tour guide through XR's east Lon- don office, a room he concedes was much messier last week, filled with a scattering of desk occupied by volunteers and lap- tops. The building itself is bright and airy, within which the rebellion sits shoulder to shoulder with children's charities and social enterprises. Currently, he estimates, he does "pretty much a full working week" for XR, while keeping some of his old clients as a "well- paying hobby" that keeps the lights on. Looking at the 2050 net zero target, he supports XR's call for a change to 2025. He says we've already reached 1.1C of warming, and that 1.5C should be seen as an abso- lute maximum, instead of a target. Even if we reach this mark, Woodhall asserts that "there's going to be thousands or potentially millions who will die due to climate change". He says "2025 is the only safe option", unless we're willing to risk the lives of our children and grandchildren. Reasoned unreason In terms of the organisation's tactics, Woodhall says that pushing for 2025 is crucial because rebellions are fundamentally unreasonable. They are there to question whether what we have already done is really good enough. He – and XR – believe the answer to that is no. Calling for 2025 will not necessarily convince people to aim for it, but it works to make other targets more reasonable in comparison. "On a personal basis, if in the next two years we end up with the British government committing wholeheartedly to a 2030 target, and actually then within those two years demonstrating that they're taking action to do it – so cancelling runway three, stopping any fracking in the UK, other things like that The Utility of the Future is being adopted as the headline theme of next year's Utility Week Live, the UK's leading utility conference and exhibiton. – then personally I would be comfortable with that because it's a lot better than 2050." When it comes to assertions by David Joffe, a team leader at the Commission for Climate Change (CCC), that an earlier target is practically impossible, he sees this as emblematic of the societal structure that has caused the problem. Woodhall calls this a "denial state", likening it to the years leading up to the Second World War, where the country acted according to a mindset of wanting to avoid thinking about the possibility of going to war again. Drawing on his experience, Woodhall comments on the lack of progress thus far, saying that throughout his career the industry mantra has always been that "you can't push society, because society will just push back". In fact, he believes XR has produced evidence to the contrary. He says its activists have shown that society can shi rapidly if presented with the harsh reality of the situation, given the groundswell of support their protests have caused. But this is not enough, he believes, the problem is growing exponentially, and so action to fix it needs to grow exponentially too. XR has initiated a dialogue about climate change, but it needs to ramp-up action, rather than taking steps incrementally. One of Woodhall's biggest criticisms of the way climate change is being approached by the industry and by groups such as the CCC is that they are trying to solve the problem with this incremental attitude. Woodhall is certain that a drastic cultural shi is entirely possible within a short time span. Returning to the Second World War metaphor, he notes that "at the start of the war we were still flying biplanes, by the end there were jet planes, there were rockets, there were nuclear weapons. Because there was a big enough problem, we worked out how to deliver it". Although keen to stress we will not be rationing and growing vegetables in our back gardens, he emphasises how swily we shied from denial to acceptance that we needed to co- operate to work towards a common goal on a national scale. When it comes to preparing for climate change, he says "utility companies have been doing an okay job", but he "wouldn't say they've done amazing". "It's great that you're adapting, great that you're focusing on renewables, but if you want to exist in ten years' time, you're going to have to change exponentially, not incrementally," he says. "We've got all the technology for the UK to be 100 per cent renewable. If we really wanted to, we could do it in ten years flat. We just need the investment and the desire; we don't even need people to be particularly clever." On nuclear generation, in his opinion, Woodhall thinks it is for the best that we The Extinction Rebellion activist "If you want to exist in ten years' time, you're going to have to change exponentially, not incrementally."

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