Radical view of zero carbon nation

Meat would also need to disappear off many menus and an "armada" of wind turbines built around the coast to achieve the goal, says the new research.

Money would meanwhile be overtaken in importance by carbon credits traded by everyone using special smart cards. The radical vision was put forward by researchers and scientists from the Centre for Alternative Technology (CAT).

They set themselves the task of seeing if Britain could cut fossil fuel emissions to zero by 2027, even assuming we only had our own resources to rely on.

They claim achieving such a drastic cut in emissions is possible and may be the only way to tackle climate change, which is threatening to spiral out of control.

CAT development director Paul Allen said: "What we are saying is that we need a huge programme, a bit like the US space project in the 60s. When that was launched it was known to be a huge target, but the driving force to make it work was there. We think that zerocarbonbritain can do that again - it can give us a positive future.

"It is a political challenge but we had the political willpower to abolish slavery even though lots of people said that would cost the economy too much."

In its report, the CAT suggests creating a market for carbon that affects every individual, household and company in the country. People would be given their own carbon credits called Tradable Energy Quotas (TEQs) and carry them on the environmental equivalent of the London transport Oyster card.

Each year the free allocation would decrease as the country moves towards zero carbon, with the effect that the value of the quotas will go up.

But every time consumers use fossil fuels, say by filling their cars up with petrol, they would lose these valuable credits, forcing them to choose low carbon alternatives. The resulting market would drive environmental change, providing the economic incentive to produce green products.