Category Archives: Climate change

Tackling climate change is a job for the whole voluntary sector not just green groups

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This post is by Richard Hebditch, director of external affairs at the Association of Charitable Foundations (ACF).

 The latest progress report from the Climate Change Committee makes it crystal clear that all sectors and organisations need to be part of the solution to climate change, and that the UK’s net zero target has helped to create the conditions for growing commitments from business and government.

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Why the government shouldn’t ignore the role of local authorities in decarbonisation

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The Climate Change Committee’s (CCC) progress report last week rightly expressed its disappointment that a number of government strategies have been continuously delayed, among them the Transport Decarbonisation Plan, the Heat and Buildings Strategy and the Treasury’s final Net Zero Review. These will all be important as part of the expected overarching Net Zero Strategy which will set the pace for how the government plans to reach its economic goal of net zero carbon by 2050. The CCC hopes that the strategy will address the current significant shortfall in policies and ambition.

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Clean Air Day: nitrogen pollution from agriculture has been overlooked for far too long

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This post is by Jenny Hawley, policy manager at Plantlife International.

Across the UK today, thousands of people will be raising awareness about the need to reduce air pollution. Most will be rightly and primarily motivated by the damage caused to our health, particularly children’s health. Yet tackling air quality can also help us to tackle the nature and climate crisis, and lead to a more sustainable food and farming system. 

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The Climate Change Committee brings home the reality of global warming for the UK 

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The government has just received the clearest, and most alarming, picture yet of what the changing climate could mean for the future of the UK.  

Whilst the devastating global impacts of climate change are well documented, the details in the Climate Change Committee’s (CCC’s) Independent Assessment of UK Climate Risk brings it much closer to home. The committee’s projections for the UK should send shockwaves through government and be a wake up call that we need to focus on climate adaptation.  

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G7 spending billions on fossil fuels isn’t the way to ‘build back better’

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This post is by Dr Ruth Valerio, Tearfund’s global advocacy and influencing director.

As the host of both the G7 Leaders’ Summit this weekend and the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow later this year, the UK has the opportunity and the mandate to show climate leadership. G7 countries’ pledges to ‘build back better’ from the pandemic were a welcome signal, but our new report shows that this once in a generation opportunity has not yet been taken.

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New climate targets won’t solve old problems without more action 

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The UK’s announcement that it will accept the Climate Change Committee’s recommendation to set a new legally binding climate target to reduce emissions by 78 per cent by 2035 should be welcomed with open arms. This target, which will sit alongside the 2030 Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) promise to cut emissions by 68 per cent by 2030, is especially significant as it includes international aviation and shipping (IAS).

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It’s time to link food, nature and climate policy

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This post is by Jessica Sinclair-Taylor, head of policy and media at Feedback.

A recent letter, organised by Nourish Scotland and signed by a number of organisations (including Feedback) and city governments, has asked COP26 President Alok Sharma to clear some space for food system debates on the agenda at the Glasgow climate summit this year. As the letter points out, the intimate links between nature, cutting and storing carbon, and food production, are not receiving the attention they deserve.

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Will net zero really cost ten million jobs?

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This post is by Jess Ralston, analyst at ECIU. This article was originally posted on ECIU’s blog

Growing new jobs and the skilled workforce to do them is an essential part of the net zero transition, and represents both a challenge and an opportunity. In the same way the internet has radically changed a swathe of jobs and sectors, and continues to do so, low carbon technology is already disrupting major industries. Elon Musk is having his day.

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We should use quantitative easing targeted at a green recovery

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This post is by Colin Hines, convenor of the UK Green New Deal Group

Last year was certainly the ultimate grim “Events dear boy, events” year. On the brighter side, despite Covid having drained discussion away from most other issues, one of the gratifying exceptions was progress on the climate crisis. This was kept in the limelight throughout the year, albeit at an elite scientist, economist, NGO and concerned politician level, the pandemic having cleared the streets of the protestors who had so successfully dominated climate coverage in 2019.

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