How much is produced?
About 26bn tons of carbon dioxide every year, and rising. World emissions have increased sharply since 2000 mainly driven by the economic boom in China. Carbon emissions are closely tied to GDP, so as an economy grows, so do emissions.
The recent recession has reduced emissions slightly, but is not expected to have a significant impact in the long term.
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I don’t want to change my entire lifestyle
The great thing about reducing your carbon footprint is that simple changes make big reductions to carbon emissions.
Turning off the lights when you leave the room, switching appliances off at the mains or turning your thermostat down one degree are all actions you won’t notice doing until you get your lower fuel bill. Profound change to your carbon footprint will necessitate more stretching actions and, potentially, greater changes to your lifestyle.
But for many people, acting on CO2 won’t mean significant change in the short term. Councils can act as leaders and role models in this field by introducing these simple changes for council buildings.
In turn this will encourage changes in employees’ behaviour which will overflow to the communities.
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I haven’t got the money to make changes
Cutting your carbon footprint doesn’t have to cost you a penny – on the contrary, it can save you money. Save money by cutting CO2.
You can do that through walking and cycling instead of driving short distances, turn your thermostat down by 1º and save on fuel bills and boil just as much water as you need.
Most of these behaviour changes can be introduced by councils e.g. establishing car sharing schemes across the area, supporting the Cycling to Work scheme whereby employees are encouraged to buy bicycles and use it to cycle to work, ensuring that all council buildings save gas and electricity on their fuel bills (make them more energy efficient) and introduce some energy saving tips in all council kitchens.
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I want to cut my carbon footprint but don’t want to compromise on quality
In the past, green products were sometimes of lower quality. However, today’s eco-friendly products are of the same or even superior quality. They are often high quality, durable and reliable, with longer operating lives. They’re often easier to repair and upgrade too.
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Is there a limit to how much we should produce?
Scientists say the world can only burn a trillion tonnes of carbon if we want to limit global warming to a 2C rise, the level they see as dangerous. Half of this has been used, and at current rates we will burn the rest inside 40 years.
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It all takes too much time and it’s too much hassle
Many of the ways you can reduce your carbon footprint take seconds and are so easy; you’ll wonder why you didn’t do them earlier.
- Clicking the dial on your washing machine to 30 degrees: one second.
- Closing the curtains at dusk: five seconds.
- Only boiling as much water as you need: minus 10 seconds (you won’t spend so long filling the kettle to the brim).
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Technology will solve the problem for us...won't it?
Significant ‘fixes’, like removing CO2 and other greenhouse gases from the atmosphere, are very unlikely because they are not available now and are not an alternative to reducing emissions, whereas many reductions in emissions, which we can all make now, will.
Councils should encourage changes in behaviours to decrease the demand for fossil.
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What are carbon emissions?
Carbon emissions usually refer to the man-made production of a series of gases that accumulate in the atmosphere and help to warm it. Not all of these contain carbon, so the phrase is shorthand for greenhouse emissions.
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What can I do?
Over 40% of Co2 emissions in the UK come directly from what individuals do. That means we can all make a difference.
If every home can install 270mm loft insulation it would save 3.8million tonnes of Co2 – the same as the annual emissions of around 650,000 homes
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What is the point of the UK acting if other countries don’t?
Every reduction in emissions makes a difference by not adding to the risk. Countries like the UK are in a position to be a positive example to the rest of the world – if the UK can rise to the challenge successfully, others will follow.
The UK is working hard with other countries to come to an international agreement on cutting emissions because we need to act now.
Moreover, there are good economic reasons to act now. The Stern Review, the Treasury’s comprehensive analysis of the economics of climate change, estimates that not taking action could cost from five to 20 per cent of global GDP every year, now and in the future. In comparison, reducing emissions to avoid the worst impacts of climate change could cost around one per cent of global GDP each year.
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Where do they come from?
Mostly from burning fossil fuels such as oil, gas and coal. The destruction of forests causes significant carbon emissions, as does as agriculture. China has overtaken the US as the largest carbon polluter, but US emissions per person are much higher.
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Why do they matter?
They trap heat at the Earth's surface via the greenhouse effect. Sunlight reflected back from shiny parts of the Earth can pass straight through the atmosphere.
But sunlight absorbed by the Earth and then re-emitted as thermal energy, such as from a Tarmac road on a sunny day, is absorbed by greenhouse gases. As carbon emissions build up in the atmosphere, so the amount of heat they trap and send back to the surface increases.
This steadily increases the temperature of the Earth's surface and drives global warming.
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Will the changes to how we get and use energy will cost billions and throw millions out of work?
There are costs to any change, but study after study shows the net effect of conservation, efficiency and less-polluting energy will be more local jobs, cheaper power, and savings in health and local pollution control.
The costs of severe climate change effects, like coastal erosion, are far greater than working to reduce them.
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