In his first edition of his new blog, TS director Richard Lupo examines some of the trickier numbers around greenhouse gas emissions… and what we can do to try and bring them down.
The latest data on local authority territorial greenhouse gas emissions is out. Readers mustn’t get excited about the word ‘latest’, because the data actually relates to 2022. The delay is due to the time required to collect and quality assure the data.
The good thing about this particular dataset is that it allows people to track how their local authority is doing. Here is how we in Stroud District compare with the rest of the UK –
You can see that our transport emissions are higher than average and our domestic emissions are slightly higher than average. That said, all of these emissions need to be zero by the year 2050 and there is a national net zero pathway for each of these sectors. The sooner that organisations and individuals in each of those sectors take action, the easier it will be to achieve net zero.
There are things that need to be done on a national scale (such as decarbonising the electricity grid), but there are also things that we as individuals can do now.
Our Homes
The national pathway is for all homes to get an energy efficiency rating of EPC C or better and then move to non-fossil fuel heating. The most likely non-fossil fuel heating will be electricity, as the current national plan is to have a net zero grid by 2035. You can check the EPC rating of your home on the EPC register and it will give a bit of guidance on how to improve. Generally, insulation is a good way to go initially, but you’ll need proper advice to take these things forward. Net zero will affect all tenures of home at some point, but owner-occupiers may want to explore photovoltaic solar panels (aka solar PV) after they’ve done the easy insulation jobs. See Transition Stroud’s advice on solar panels
Our Transport
The national pathway is to encourage more active transport forms such as walking and cycling instead of cars on short journeys. More public transport will also be encouraged as will moving to electric cars. Electric cars may not be for everyone at the moment, but electric bikes are certainly growing in popularity. If you would like to have an electric bike, but are unsure of the practicalities, you can try one out using one of two new electric bike schemes run by Transition Stroud. The idea is that you rent a e-bike for a short period at a reduced cost and hopefully become an e-bike convert so you then buy one for and do those short journeys by bike instead of by car.
Just for interest, the diagram below shows how the 375 million tonnes of CO2e was emitted in the UK. (CO2e is a kind of shortcut that measures greenhouse gases by considering them all as carbon dioxide.) It also shows how those emissions are split by sector and country.
A few notes on the data:
⦁ These are UK territorial emissions and aviation emissions are excluded (aviation could add another 30 million tonnes or so)
⦁ Embodied CO2 of stuff we buy and import from other countries is also excluded (these could add approximately 360 million tonnes)
⦁ We have omitted land use changes in our chart because they are relatively small (0.8 million tonnes) and unnecessarily complicate the picture
⦁ Emissions that cannot be reasonably allocated to local authorities could add around 9 million tonnes
⦁ There is more recent data, but it is provisional and does not split down into different local authorities