The Climate Change Act was passed in Scotland in 2009 and holds beliefs that reducing greenhouse gas emissions and making a transition to a low carbon economy will benefit our country. The act set a 42% reduction target for greenhouse gases emissions by 2020, and a further 80% reduction target by 2050. By setting targets, this shows us that the government are taking steps to better our environment and also allow people to understand the effects of global warming and how important it really is. Before this act was brought into place, there would have been many people that did not understand climate change and how it can affect us. Similarly, there will be others that still to this day are unsure on the reasoning for this act and who have perhaps never heard of it. Before this week’s input, I was one of these people, nor did I understand the difference between climate and weather. Climate refers to the average daily weather/atmosphere over a long period of time, and weather refers to the day to day short term conditions.
Climate Change can affects us in a variety of different ways. It affects aspects such as agriculture, energy, water, animals, plants, coasting, and recreation to name a few. Although these may not directly affect us in our day to day lives, other changes do, such as the introduction of the 5p carrier bag charge that was introduced in October 2014. Plastic bags take longer to degrade in the environment than others and can have a damaging effect on our wildlife and our society in terms of litter. The government have estimated these benefits as an outcome over the next ten years:
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- An expected overall benefit of over £780 million to the UK economy
- Up to £730 million raised for good causes
- £60 million savings in litter clean up costs
- Carbon savings of £13 million “
This shows massive changes and benefits to our economy simply by one small change to our lifestyles by more of us reusing our plastic bags and less of us littering them.
I also calculated my carbon footprint which I found both interesting and quite shocking at the same time. A “carbon footprint” is defined as the amount of C02 emissions (Carbon Dioxide) released into the environment by individuals, organisations or communities. After taking the test my carbon footprint calculated up to be at 134% which I found pretty shocking. My carbon breakdown showed that my footprint was made up of 22% Home, 28% food, 33% Travel and 17% Stuff. Although the result was higher than expected, I was still aware that it would remain at a high level as I commute most days in my car travelling a 78 mile journey to uni. This is too far of a journey to consider other options such as cycling as the majority of the journey is on a busy motorway, and after calculating cost factors, a train journey also works out more expensive and less convenient. However, I have learned that I can try and reduce this in other ways in terms of buying seasonal/fresh food and allowing less food waste. I can also choose to recycle my clothes when I have a large clear out instead of throwing them in a black bag and chucking them in the bin.
References
http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Environment/climatechange/scotlands-action/climatechangeact
