To give you an idea of how hard that is going to be, we were advised that 50 per cent of the CO2 output in the UK is from heating and heating processes. To put this into perspective, if every single one of us switched off the heating at home and at work and never ran it again we would still miss the 2050 target by a mile. Although it's the right thing to do to switch off the heating at home, I think it's an idea which is going to struggle to catch on.
I'm writing this in my heated office - outside its -1C; it's been below 3C for the last 7 days and I live on the South coast. The North of England and Scotland are covered in snow. There is no way I'm switching off the heating.
Now I'm a fan of new technology and I know it will help a lot with our programme to reduce CO2, but I don't think it's going to be enough. My old house and all the other ones like it will never be super-efficient.
Over the next 40 years I think some major changes will have to be carried out if we are going to get anywhere near this target. We need to think big. Any ideas would be welcome.