This time two years ago all anyone cared about was whether you were switching off your standby, or riding your bicycle, or changing your lightbulbs. These days that all seems very 2006: many people now seem to have signed up for the idea that actually change will need to come from above - from shops, corporations, governmental organisations.
Which leaves us, actually, with a giant headache. While we're happily shrugging off our responsibilities, who is assuming them? Can we really believe that the government is going to deal with all this? The fact that campaigners now have the climate bill they wanted, the fact that many businesses are running high-profile campaigns about how green they are, do these things mean that you can stop wearing jumpers and turn all your radiators up high?
Well, obviously not. A chunky 40% of the UK's emissions come as a result of decisions taken by individuals - travel, heating, food purchases. We do not have the faintest chance of making an 80% reduction in our carbon emissions by 2050 without dealing with the choices that individuals make. And yet what, exactly, is the government doing about this crucial area?
At the moment, this is it. Now I've seen plenty of terrible public service announcements in my time but this has to be one of the worst: striving for the heights of the Bisto ads it misses completely and plummets into the depths of McCain oven chips instead. Why is the dad such a bad actor? Why is his wife, in the way of all advertisements this century, so weary and knowing? And was his middle daughter's spooky resemblance to Kerry Katona deliberate? And how does it make you feel, to watch this ad and know that the fate of the entire human race rests upon it?
Okay, perhaps that's a slight exaggeration. But I've been trying to find out what other plans the government has for getting us to change our behaviour, and there's not much there. The advert referred to above is part of the Act on CO2 campaign, launched with huge fanfare last year by the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs: as well as the ads, there's a website where you can measure your carbon footprint and a helpline on saving energy. "Act on CO2 is at the forefront for us," a helpful press officer at the Department for Energy and Climate Change told me.
The other tool seems to be green taxation, and another equally helpful press officer at the Treasury talked about the changes to vehicle excise duty which were brought in in the last budget: this was the new banding for cars which meant that more fuel efficient cars paid less tax. But that's it really, though the government used to bang on about green taxes all the time. (They were going to put up petrol prices, but they backed out of that.) It will be interesting to see if the pre-budget report in the next couple of weeks will include any green measures: I bet you there will be some teeny little measure thrown out, but the vast majority of the measures and the promised tax-cuts will be focussed on "stimulating growth".
Meanwhile the Tories are pulling right away from green taxes - although, to be fair, the Tories seem to be pulling away from everything at the moment.
There was a plan to issue each house with smart meters that would show householders exactly how much power they were using, but the government is getting quiet on the subject and looks like dropping the idea.
And what about personal carbon trading? Rumours were circulating last year that David Miliband, then environment secretary, was all in favour, and the environmental audit committee brought out a very favourable report in the spring. But last week the government published its response: basically Gordon Brown says no, no and double no.
It's too complicated and anyway it won't work, they say, and anyway we're doing loads of other things such as … oh yeah. Act on CO2. As the report admits: "Marketing communication activity cannot change behaviour on its own; but together with policy and delivery body interventions, the campaign will help secure the necessary behaviour change."
If you're wondering what delivery body interventions are, it seems to mean the help of government organisations like the Energy Savings Trust. Even the press officer I spoke to admitted it was one of those bureaucratic phrases that doesn't really mean anything. Not ideal really, but there you go.
So that's the plan. Green taxes (if we had any), a public campaign (always a life changer), and, erm, that's about it. Looks like we're going to have to keep on turning the lights off all by ourselves.
