Google unveils plan to save the world

Google has unveiled a $4 trillion plan detailing how it thinks the US should transition to a low carbon economy.

The wide-reaching strategy sets out a series of proposals designed to wean the US's energy network off coal and oil by 2030 and cut cars' use of fossil fuels by 40 per cent by the same date.

"It's cheaper to fix global warming than to ignore it," said chief executive Eric Scmidt at the unveiling of the new strategy. "The payback on energy efficiency is enormous."

The company said it will lobby government to adopt its plan and is expected to call upon some highly influential figures in the process – Schmidt, for example, is a business advisor to presidential candidate Barack Obama.

Schmidt said the annual cost of the Google energy plan, which it describes as a "first iteration", would still be less than the proposed $700bn rescue package designed to bail out the financial industry.

Under the strategy, Google proposes the implementation of stricter building codes, a commitment to expand wind and solar tax credits, and the development of a US carbon cap-and-trade system, built around carefully allocated emission permits and a stable carbon price.

The new policy document is the latest in a series of initiatives from the search giant designed to help tackle climate change.

The company has already invested $45m (£25m) backing start-up companies that are trying to develop wind, solar and geothermal technologies through its philanthropic arm Google.org.

In addition, Google recently joined with General Electric (GE) to speed up development of new power grid technology, and has called for the roll out of smart meters to help improve energy efficiency in the home.

The search giant forecast that new efficiency standards for computers would cut energy consumption significantly by 2010, and said that its own servers currently used only 20 per cent of the average datacentre energy consumption.

Schmidt admitted that the exercise was partly one in positive branding, but said that it was in the interest of everyone to promote clean energy.