Wyre Forest District Council
Climate Action and Carbon Reduction Plan 2024 - 2027
Climate change
Climate change is primarily caused by the anthropogenic release of carbon dioxide (CO2) into the atmosphere, which traps the heat of the sun (insolation) via a process called the enhanced greenhouse effect. Records show that the average temperature of the Earth has risen by around 1 degree Celsius since the pre-Industrial period. The UK is already affected by rising temperatures. The period 2008 - 2017 has been 0.8 °C warmer than the average for the period 1961-1990.
The environmental and economic costs of climate change are increasing. Along with warming at the earth’s surface, many other changes in the climate are occurring such as warming oceans, melting polar ice and glaciers, rising sea levels, and more extreme weather events.
Across the world we are already seeing devastating consequences from more frequent and intense droughts, storms, heat waves, rising sea levels, and melting glaciers upon people’s lives and livelihoods as well as whole communities and ecosystems. As climate change worsens, dangerous weather events are becoming more frequent or severe.
Greenhouse gases
Since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution in Britain (c.1750), the anthropogenic (human-induced) release of greenhouse gases has caused the level of CO2 in the atmosphere to rise by approximately 50%. Global average atmospheric carbon dioxide levels have risen from 315.98 ppm (parts per million) in 1959 to 418.56ppm for the year 2022. The primary causes of this rise in CO2 levels are the direct combustion of fossil fuels (for the likes of transport and manufacturing), land use change (especially deforestation), agriculture, and overconsumption.
Carbon dioxide is not the only greenhouse gas (GHG), nor is it the only contributor to the enhanced greenhouse effect. Methane (CH4) is approximately 56 times more potent than CO2 in terms of its global warming potential after 20 years in the atmosphere, but typically stays in the atmosphere for a much shorter period than CO2 (12 years compared with 300 – 1,000 years). A major cause of methane emissions is industrialised animal agriculture, especially that involving ruminant livestock such as cattle and sheep. Other greenhouse gases contributing to the enhanced greenhouse effect include nitrous oxide (N20) and the fluorinated gases.
This climate strategy shall be primarily (but by no means exclusively) concerned with the reduction of the CO2 emissions for which the Council is responsible, as well increasing the Council’s potential for the removal of carbon from the atmosphere (sequestration) through strategies such as ecosystem regeneration/restoration and the enhancement of biodiversity.
Where possible, emissions figures are expressed in metric tonnes (1,000kg) of carbon dioxide equivalent (tCO2e) throughout this report, as this is the standardised way of measuring and comparing emissions. However, where this is not possible and/or convenient, emissions figures will also be expressed in kilotons of carbon dioxide equivalent (ktCO2e), with a kiloton being equal to 1,000 metric tonnes.
Carbon Neutrality vs Net Zero
Although often used interchangeably, carbon neutrality and net zero do not have the same meaning. Both terms refer to balancing out of any existing emissions through sequestration (removing carbon from the atmosphere via the photosynthesis of plants) and offsetting projects. However, with carbon neutrality, the emphasis is placed on offsetting emissions using strategies such as tree planting or the installation of a PV. With regards to net zero, the emphasis is placed on reducing emissions as much as possible, and only using sequestration as a last resort in order to offset any remaining emissions.