WE seven plus billion humans need more than encouragement if we are to have any chance of keeping climate change below two degrees Celsius.

We’ve been told time and again that we must reduce the amount of CO2 we produce and while there’s been some reduction with the development of of renewable energy the progress has been patchy.

It seems a reduction in CO2 needs more than exhortation. Governments must take decisions to implement appropriate policies, and then enforce them. Where this has happened there's been a noticeable impact, despite initial opposition

Examples include British Columbia’s annually increasing tax on fossil fuels, with all the revenue being used to reduce income and corporation tax. The result is the lowest personal taxation in Canada and CO2 production reduced by a fifth.

Over here France, Belgium, Germany and Scotland have outright bans on the development of fracking, CO2 and methane producing, while many countries have outlawed the use of incandescent light bulbs where 95 percent of the energy produces heat rather than light. Following Cuba in 2005 twenty five other countries have outlawed their import and sale, while the EU has taken a little longer.

Many countries, often African, have now completely outlawed the import, production, sale and use of plastic bags. The list includes South Africa and Ethiopia, and following the 2002 record floods Bangladesh banned them completely, as did China in 2008. This isn't unreasonable as making 14 plastic bags uses as much oil as driving one mile,.

With the climate change conference in Morocco this month the government there has taken a rigorous stance – plastic bag import, manufacture, and use is now outlawed and users will be fined. Only re-usable fabric bags, and paper ones are allowed.

This is certainly more effective than the English policy, where despite a drop in their use, millions of bags are now sold, adding to litter and the production of unnecessary CO2.

We also set other poor examples, with approval for fracking, opposition to land based wind turbines, and withdrawal of the plans for all new houses to have the highest possible energy efficiency by 2016.