Want to save the planet? Move to Wales

What can you do to help quell the devastating impacts of climate change? Start life on a greener path in the countryside.

Fighting climate change is much more than a day job for Chris Vernon and Erica Thompson. It is their entire way of life.

They are part of a groundbreaking Welsh government scheme under which people get to circumvent tight planning rules so long as they build an eco-home in the countryside and go back to working the land on which it sits.

The ‘One Planet Development Policy‘ was adopted by the Welsh government in 2011 and so far, 32 households have signed up.

The aim is ambitious: in a small country where people on average use three times their fair share of the world’s resources, Wales wants its One Planet people to use only the resources they are due. Which means a simpler smallholding life, spending and travelling less, growing and making more.

Read the full story here.

This story was published with permission from Thomson Reuters Foundation.

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