The bill for The climate Change Act (2009) was passed by parliament in June 2009. This act set a target for 2050, and an interim target for 2020 as well as annual targets. These targets where to lead to “the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions; to provide about the giving of advice to the Scottish Ministers relating to climate change; to confer power on Ministers to impose climate change duties on public bodies; to make further provision about mitigation of and adaptation to climate change; to make provision about energy efficiency, including provision enabling council tax discounts; to make provision about the reduction and recycling of waste; and for connected purposes” (Scottish Government, 2009). By the year 2050 Scottish ministers must make sure that total Scottish emissions are at least 80% lower than the baseline.
One of the ways I think the government have progressed towards meeting these targets is charging people for carrier bags. On the 20th October 2014, legislation was passed by the Scottish government the requires all retailers to charge at least 5p for all carrier bags. This was to promote bag re-use and to reduce the effects of littering. Scotland alone uses a staggering 800 million single-use bags each year. And each year, council litter collectors pick up at least 7.4 million bags from our streets and surroundings. These bag charges hopefully will encourage people to re-use bags and prevent people from littering.
This has definitely had an impact on me personally and also upon my family. Whenever we go to the supermarket we always re-use bags from previous shopping trips and have several “bags for life”. We also ask for our shopping not to be put in bags when we are getting it delivered to our home. Whenever we do have to purchase a carrier bag we never throw it away but will keep them to re-use again.
Having completed the WWF Environmental footprint I learned a number of things about my lifestyle and my own carbon footprint.
My carbon footprint was at 115%. I did anticipate it being high. In fact, I actually thought it would be higher 115%. Despite this evidently it is not a good result. It is definitely somewhat of a thought provoker. What is plainly clear is that if I want to reduce my carbon footprint I need to make some changes.
During my carbon breakdown it was revealed that the area I need to reduce the most is “food”. This does not surprise me. I eat a lot of animal products which I know has environmental repercussions. I also live in a family home and we probably purchase far more food than we need each week. This of course leads to waste. We also have a young, rather fussy, child in our home who rarely cleans their plate and often refuses to eat the meals cooked for them. In addition we have a very pampered pet cat that frequently turns up their nose at their food dish, expecting something better as a replacement. This obviously leads to even more food waste. However all of our food waste gets put into our brown bin and not just into general rubbish. Perhaps taking this into account my carbon footprint would be slightly less but I am not sure.
The thing that really surprised me while completing this quiz was my own ignorance. There are so many things I never even associated with my carbon footprint. When you mention environment my first thoughts would be about transport, recycling, heating your home, food waste and so on… It never even occurred to me that all of the “stuff” I buy and use such as makeup, beauty products, my phone, the television and clothes are linked in a strong way. I admit that I love shopping and there is no doubt in my mind that I purchase significantly more items than needed.
I was surprised to see that my carbon footprint is smaller than the UK average. I suspect this is partly because I cannot drive, rather than my own efforts to be greener. However when compared to the world average it really quite embarrassing to see how large my footprint is. I suspect others in the UK feel the same way. This topic has been somewhat of an eye opener and highlighted that I do need to make some small changes in areas I had previously never thought about in order to make a difference.
References
http://carrierbagchargescotland.org.uk/
http://www.greenerscotland.org/cleanerscotland/carrier-bags
http://footprint.wwf.org.uk/questionnaires/
