Time to loosen your tie?

Lord Adair Turner, dubbed the UK's new 'climate czar' and chair of the Climate Change Committee believes that forcing men to wear suits and women to wear smart skirts raises demand for air-conditioning. He said “We have to stop over-air-conditioning offices. In summer we should only air-condition offices to the kind of temperature where it is comfortable if you are wearing light sleeveless summer clothes”.

Lord Turner thinks that 'office dress' also discourages people from using sustainable forms of transport such as walking and cycling. He believes a closed collar unduly raises people’s temperature. “I do think in the summer we should stop wearing ties. I like them in winter because they keep you warm but if you see me in summer from now on I will be tieless”.

Civil servants are likely to be among the first office workers to be liberated from their formal clothing, with Turner hinting “There is a case for the civil service setting an example on this. I don’t think I would go as far as shorts myself yet but it is an interesting challenge and we are going to be thinking about it”.

Turner’s proposal for office workers is one element of a strategy aimed at making big cuts in the 670m tons of CO2 generated by Britain each year. About a third come from power generation, a third from surface transport and the rest from heating.

He wants to see emissions cut by at least 60% and possibly as much as 90% by 2050. Under such a vision, renewable and nuclear energy would provide all Britain’s needs for electricity but would also be used to generate fuels such as hydrogen that could be used for cars. As well as changing the office dress code other radical suggestions for achieving the aims for reduction in emissions include locating wind turbines on the central reservations of motorways.

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