Where are we with climate change?

It’s gone a bit quiet after the much-heralded breakthrough of COP28.  Is it the usual moving on to the next news story and our immediate post-Christmas concerns or was COP28 just another tick in the climate box?

Our government has announced that the UK needs to slow down on climate change and have rowed back on previous commitments. They, and at least one of our two MPs in Teignbridge, Mel Stride, assure us we are ahead on our Carbon Budgets. 

We are told that things will be fixed by 2050 and we can carry on with life as usual. They say there is climate warming caused by our greenhouse gas (ghg) emissions, but there are technological solutions to reduce these emissions and safely capture/store the remaining gases. In any case, it’s not the UK that’s causing the damage, it’s the rest of the world that’s creating 99% of all ghg emissions.

I think it’s time to tell the truth: the government is lying! You may say that’s nothing new, but when it is being dishonest about an existential threat to life on earth, it’s important to speak bluntly. We need the message to be much more direct, science-based and honest about the necessary actions.  We can no longer wait for government to do this, we need to take direct action.

This is not a call for protest and civil disobedience; there are other organisations that already do this. I believe we need to act much more locally and personally, and we need to do it this year.

Rather than making disingenuous claims about the UK’s emissions, the government may want to point to a strategy on how it will ensure that the UK remains within its legal Carbon Budgets. Better still, they should launch a public information campaign to explain the need to halve our per-capita consumption emissions from the unsustainable 10t CO2e/year.

You have more control over your greenhouse gas emissions than you think, both as an individual or part of an organisation. Use 2024 to talk to anyone and everyone you know about what effective actions to take. Before you do this, it helps to be familiar with the basics and understand how to communicate this information. ACT can help with training, methods and ongoing support. Contact our Carbon Cutter coordinator to organise a 30 minute online introduction to see what is available to you or your organisation.

You can also contact fuad@actionclimateteignbridge.org