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www.keepscotlandbeautiful.org/ccf

Carbon Literacy for Communities


Keep Scotland Beautiful; what we do

Sustainable development education Provide education

initiatives for children, young people and educators

Local environmental quality Provide advice support and training to help create and maintain cleaner and safer local areas

Sustainability and climate change Work to help people to reduce carbon emissions and adapt to impacts of climate change

Environmental services Help organisations meet environmental commitments and responsibilities

www.climatechallengefund.org

The Climate Challenge Fund

The Climate Challenge Fund is a Scottish Government grant programme that

provides funding and support for community-led organisations to run projects that

reduce local carbon emissions, helping to tackle climate change.

Since it was launched in 2008 the CCF has funded 986 projects including:

• energy efficiency improvements to community owned buildings and home

energy efficiency advice

• lower carbon travel options

• community growing initiatives

• schemes to tackle waste

www.climatechallengefund.org

Training and support

Keep Scotland Beautiful manages and administers the Climate Challenge Fund on

behalf of the Scottish Government.

Keep Scotland Beautiful has staff that support CCF applicants and those awarded

grants. Keep Scotland Beautiful also offer free training, events and support to help

communities across Scotland build their capacity to tackle climate change.


http://www.keepscotlandbeautiful.org/ccf


Carbon Literacy

• Day One – Understanding

and Communicating

Climate Change

• Day Two – Low Carbon

Behaviours

“Carbon literacy means having an instinctive understanding of the carbon

impacts of our activities, and being able to make informed choices about the

most energy and resource efficient and lower carbon options available to us.”

Carbon Literacy Project


Carbon Literacy

• Certification – To receive

certification you will be asked

to fill in a short assessment

form asking you to identify

one personal and one group

carbon reducing action you

will take.

• You will be asked to outline

why you think these actions

are significant and this will

allow the Carbon Literacy

Project to certify you.


Icebreaker

Talk to the person next to you.

Tell each other one thing you know for certain about

climate change, and one thing you’re not so sure

about?


Aims of today

• Examine the scientific basis for climate change

• Explore the potential impacts rising greenhouse gasses

and a changing climate

• Learn about communicating climate change and

practice some techniques for doing so


Structure of the day

• Morning –looking at the science behind climate change;

and how our climate is changing already. What is being

done about it?

• Lunch

• Afternoon – Myth busting and thinking about how we

communicate the climate case


Why is climate change happening?


The Greenhouse Effect

• Greenhouse gases

(GHGs)naturally occur

in Earth’s atmosphere

• Without GHGs the

average global

temperature would be

around 30ºC lower

than it is today.

• Human activity

increasing

concentration of GHGs


Natural Carbon cycle – low human impact

SOURCES SINKS


Altered Carbon balance

SINKS

SOURCES


Causes of Climate Change


Causes of climate change

• Increase in greenhouse gas emissions – this causes the

natural blanket around the atmosphere to ‘thicken’

trapping in more heat.

• Greenhouse gases = Carbon Dioxide (CO2), Methane

(CH4), Nitrous Oxide (N2O).

Fact: Since start of industrial era

levels of main greenhouse gases

increased (CO2 – 40%; CH4 –

150% and N2O – 20%)


The Science Bit


Svante August Arrhenius (1859 – 1927)

“…we may hope to enjoy ages with more equable and better climates, especially as regards the colder regions of the earth, ages when the earth will bring forth much more abundant crops than at present, for the benefit of rapidly propagating mankind.”

Published a study the warming effect of carbon dioxide: “the greenhouse effect”


Evidence – The Keeling Curve

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mauna_Loa_Carbon_Dioxide.png#file

“observed rate of increase is nearly that to be expected from the combustion of fossil fuel”


Ice Cores

source:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_core

source: http://planetearth.nerc.ac.uk/news/story.aspx?id=609

• Ice cores contain

information about

temperature and gases

• Antarctica – ice cores

can stretch back

800,000 years

Darker

layers

winter Arrowed

layers

summer


Ice Cores - Evidence


This graph, based on the comparison of atmospheric samples contained in ice cores and more recent direct measurements, provides evidence that

atmospheric CO2 has increased since the Industrial Revolution. (Credit: Vostok ice core data/J.R. Petit et al.; NOAA Mauna Loa CO2 record.). Taken from

http://climate.nasa.gov/evidence/

Start of

industrial

revolution

http://climate.nasa.gov/evidence/


Earthbook

http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/earth_temperature_timeline.png

http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/earth_temperature_timeline.png


Tea and coffee break


Climate Justice


Carbon emissions - current

http://www.carbonmap.org/#Emissions


Carbon emissions - historical


People at Risk


Consumption Emissions

Source: EXTREME CARBON INEQUALITY Why the Paris climate deal must put the poorest, lowest emitting and most vulnerable people first, Oxfam Media Briefing: https://www.oxfam.org/sites/www.oxfam.org/files/file_attachments/mb-extreme-carbon-inequality-021215-en.pdf


Development vs. Climate Change

• “The right to development is an

inalienable human right by virtue of

which every human person and all

peoples are entitled to participate in,

contribute to, and enjoy economic,

social, cultural and political

development, in which all human

rights and fundamental freedoms can

be fully realized.” (Article 1.1,

Declaration on the Right to

Development)

• Sustainable Development Goals

(SDGs)

https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/?menu=1300


The Carbon Budget


Current Impacts and Evidence


Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change


IPCC

• Warming of the climate system is unequivocal, and

since the 1950s, many of the observed changes are

unprecedented over decades to millennia.

• In the Northern Hemisphere, 1983–2012 was likely

the warmest 30-year period of the last 1400 years.

• Global surface temperature change for the end of the

21st century is likely to exceed 1.5 C relative to 1850

to 1900.

• It is likely to exceed 2°C for high emissions scenarios


Global average temperatures

http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/research/monitoring/climate/surface-temperature

http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/research/monitoring/climate/surface-temperature


Global average temperatures

http://www.climate-lab-book.ac.uk/files/2016/07/spiral_may2016.gif


Melting Ice - Sea

Source: http://www.skepticalscience.com/Global-Warming-in-a-Nutshell.html


Melting Ice - Sea


Melting Ice - Glacial Retreat

http://climate.nasa.gov/state_of_flux#Qori-Kalis-930px-80-v2.jpg

Qori Kalis glacier, Peru

http://climate.nasa.gov/state_of_flux#Qori-Kalis-930px-80-v2.jpg


Sea Level Rise

• Melting of glaciers

and polar ice caps

• Thermal expansion

• Sea levels rising at a

rate of 1.7 mm per

year

• Thousands of coastal

cities and whole

islands at risk.

Fact: Average global sea

level rose 0.19m over a

period between 1901-2010


Nature

Polar Bears in Hudson Bay, Canada1,200 polar bearsHunt on the ice during SpringPut on 50-75% of their body fat in these monthsBut:Ice in Hudson Bay melts 3 weeks earlier nowLess chance for the bears to feedCome on to shore 10kg lighter

Not just Polar Bears at risk, the

IUCN have identified many species

that are affected by climate change

The report can be found at

http://cmsdata.iucn.org/downloads/

species_and_climate_change.pdf

Source: www.hngn.com

http://cmsdata.iucn.org/downloads/species_and_climate_change.pdf


Nature

Puffins in the UK

Warmer temperatures in the seas around the UK mean that sand eels, the main food of puffins, are moving north.

Storms and coastal erosion also have an impact on puffin populations and they are now on the IUCN ‘red list’.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Fratercula_arctica_-Skomer_Island,_Wales_-flying_with_fish_in_beak-8.jpg

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sand_eel#/media/File:Flickr_-_Rainbirder_-_Back_from_a_fishing_trip.jpg


The Impacts of climate change – how is our weather going to

change and how is it changing already?

TITLE (Arial 24pt Bold)


Recent Trends

• Average temp. increase of 0.5°C (since

1914

• Temp. increase in all seasons in all parts of

Scotland (since 1961)

• Heavy rainfall events increased – in

particular Northern and Western parts

• 25% reduction in number of frost days

(since 1961)

• Growing season starts 3 weeks earlier

(compared to 1961)

http://www.sniffer.org.uk/files/9313/4183/7426/Climate_Trends_Handbook_for

_web.pdf

http://www.sniffer.org.uk/files/9313/4183/7426/Climate_Trends_Handbook_for_web.pdf


Future?

2050s

2080s?

What difference

do a few degrees

make? South-East England

2.7°Cwarmer in summer

than the Forth Basin(in baseline 1961-1990)

So our summer temperatures may be

more similar to those in southern

England by the 2050s...

... and unlike anything currently

experienced in the UK by the

2080s

Source: Adapation Scotland, Sniffer


Extreme Weather - Heatwaves

• Summer 2003 record

breaking heatwave in

Europe.

• Many European

countries experienced

their highest

temperature on

record.

• According to Met

Office this period of

extreme heat is

thought to be

warmest for up to 500

years

Source: www.paulotavares.net

http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CAYQjB0&url=http://www.paulotavares.net/air/part-03-governing-air/2-deadly-waves/&ei=UJf1VLmmLIiUasHygGA&psig=AFQjCNHHmBCobxL5ms7EwtlHNK61lCkKwA&ust=1425467584762400


Extreme Weather - Flooding

The UK has experienced heavy

floods in the last decade

Storm Frank affected many parts

of Scotland in January 2016

(Deeside and the South West

particularly)

The West Coast Mainline was

closed until February 2016

between Carlsile and Glasgow

The IPCC have warned that

climate change will increase the

risk of both floods and droughts


Extreme Weather Stories


Consequences

http://adaptationscotland.org/why-adapt/impacts-scotland


What Can We Do?


What Can We Do?

• Mitigation – efforts to cut or prevent the emission of

greenhouse gases

• Adaptation – lower the risks associated with impacts of

climate change


The Paris Agreement

COP21 = 21st Conference of the Parties

UNFCCC = United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change

Photo Credit: "Paris vue d'ensemble tour Eiffel" by Taxiarchos228, cropped and modified by Poke2001 - Paris-pano-wladyslaw.jpg. Licensed under CC BY 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Paris_vue_d%27ensemble_tour_Eiffel.jpg#/media/File:Paris_vue_d%27ensemble_tour_Eiffel.jpg


Mitigation - Aim

To keep average global

temperature rise well below

2°c, and to pursue efforts to

limit temperature increase to

1.5°c


Mitigation in Scotland

• More than half (56.7%) of the electricity generated in

Scotland comes from renewables – target is 100% by

2020

• 3% of Scotland’s warmth, in 2012, came from biomass,

solar thermal panels, energy from waste and heat pumps

– target is 11% by 2020

• Across all sectors in Scotland waste sent to landfill has

dropped from over 7 million tonnes in 2003 to just over 4

million tonnes in 2013.


Mitigation in Scotland


Adaptation - Aim

To increase ability to adapt to climate change impacts and

foster climate resilience and low emissions development

www.keepscotlandbeautiful.org The charity for Scotland’s environment

Adaptation in Scotland

• Scottish Climate Change Adaptation programme sets

out what government, businesses, and society are doing to

become more climate ready.

• The Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009 - makes legal

arrangements about climate change mitigation and

adaption.

• Adaptation Scotland - provides advice and support to help

ensure that Scotland is prepared for, and resilient to, the

impacts of climate change.

http://adaptationscotland.org/


Adaptation in Scotland

https://vimeo.com/67719422


Lunch!


Myth Busters – dealing with myths, denials and excuses

www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2015-whats-warming-the-world/

http://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2015-whats-warming-the-world


Communicating the Climate Case


Diamond 9

• You have been given 9 cards with evidence for

climate change on them

• Your task is to categorise them into most important to

least important causes, like this

Most useful

Least useful


Knowledge-Action Gap


George Marshall


What’s Important?

• Who’s the Messenger? – Who is telling me this is a problem? Are they like me? Are they convinced?

• What’s the story? – Does is fit into my world-view? Does it talk to my values? Does it challenge my identity?

• Is it relevant? – What’s this got to do with my life, where I live and the things I think are important?

• How can I help? – What can I do? How will that be a positive thing?


Values


The Power of I….

• I am like you …• I am not what you might expect!• I believe that the climate is changing because …• I was not always like this. What changed me was …• When I think of climate change I feel …• I am doing …• It’s not always easy …• But doing something feels…


Tea and Coffee


http://www.greenerscotland.org/scotland-2030


Climate Conversations

Step-by-step approach to help people to

engage with the issue of climate change and

enjoy being part of a conversation.

A 70-minute conversation with a group of

approximately five to ten people.

Guide includes:

1. A Script to guide you in facilitating the

conversation

2. Materials to aid the conversation

3. A Checklist to help you remember

everything you’ll need.http://www.greenerscotland.org/why-live-

greener/climateconversation

http://www.greenerscotland.org/why-live-greener/climateconversation


Round-Up and Tomorrow

• What is climate change

• Why is climate change happening

• Evidence for link between carbon and climate

change

• Observed impacts

• Impact on weather/UK climate

• What can we do

• Myth busters

• Communicating climate change


And Finally……

carbon literacy for communities - keep scotland beautiful › media › 1558967 ›...

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