Climate Week in the UK

What is the key to attain decreases in greenhouse gas emissions and to respond to the climate change challenge? The ongoing Climate Week (21st - 27th March) in the UK is focusing on organizations, both public and private. This is because although there are a lot of campaigns to change the personal lifestyles of people, the Climate Week assumes that people can have more impact if they bring about policy changes in their workplace, parish or schools.

The Climate Week is full of local low-carbon events, includes an award for green achievements and a national Climate Change Challenge "Develop a green idea to save money or make money". The aim of the week is to showcase the solutions that will enable us to combat climate change, and inspire action during the other 51 weeks of the year. The Climate Week is business-backed, including also controversial supporters like Tesco and the Royal Bank of Scotland. It has been argued that the campaign is letting the big corporations off the hook by concentrating on the small improvements that they make, instead of really changing the way they do business. After all, is the problem really the lack of awareness of citizens or are the carbon-intensive big corporations the real key players in solving the problem of climate change?

Roadmap for Zero Carbon Britain

A recently published report by the UK Centre for Alternative Technology suggests that the UK could become carbon-free by 2030. This means that in 20 years, the UK could reduce its carbon emissions by 90 % and offset the remaining 10 % of the emissions.

The report provides a road map for achieving the goal of a carbon-free society. To this end, adopting environmental technologies, reducing fossil fuel use, increasing resource efficiency and significant societal behaviour changes are all necessary. The report offers a variety of actions that make zero carbon society seem possible, at the same time creating hundreds of thousands of new jobs and addressing environmental challenges.

Individuals and communities must play their part in decreasing carbon emissions. Here, the key is to promote new technologies, eco-design and foster new environmentally friendly social norms. Most importantly, however, the report states a international climate agreement is needed.

More information: Environmental Technologies Action Plan.
Read the Zero Carbon Britain report.