Project aim
Global leaders are seeking ways to cut carbon quickly and cheaply. This will be heavily discussed at COP21 in Paris later this year (Click here to watch a film about this)
Some suggest for example, Carbon Capture and Storage is the only way, although everyone will benefit more if we compliment this with other actions.
This is a crucial time for climate change agreements and what will happen at the United Nations conference of the Parties on Climate Change (COP21) will influence the future of climate policy worldwide. While governments and global leaders will attempt to reach ambitious strategies for curbing carbon emissions, universities and civil society can contribute by inspiring individuals and communities to take climate change seriously and adopt an alternative lifestyle.
We think a 2009 Cornish project was a eureka moment that found a quick, effective and enjoyable solution, that can be undertaken by any community to immediately reduce their carbon emissions.
We first asked ourselves
How can our communities respond to the challenges and opportunities of climate change and a low-carbon transition?
Our answer? (Quick Look)
In 2009, a network of climate activists and Scientists in Truro delivered a behavioural change campaign to support local and national delegates involved in the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference (COP15). We asked individuals and communities to think about the carbon cost of their lifestyle and to pledge to do easy, realistic carbon cutting actions. In only four months, 4488 individuals and organisations chose to adopt low-carbon and sustainable behaviours such as buying local food, saving energy or researching climate change. We are now looking to calculate the carbon cost of our campaign in order to show to COP21 delegates that behavioural change can provide an effective strategy for achieving carbon reduction targets. We also want to show that they can compete with risky and more expensive technology such as Carbon Capture and Storage. To make this happen we need your help.
The first target of £2500 is to research the "cost per tonne" of a successful carbon cutting project in Cornwall. A second overfunding target of £5000 (in total) is in place to help demonstrate, publicise and supply this data to those who need to see it!
Climate Vision is a Social Enterprise aiming to improve peoples lives and make them more resilient to the impacts of climate change. Climate Vision was born out of the Footsteps Project and voluntarily working in flood communities in Cornwall in 2011/2012 implementing sustainable and practical solutions.
We believe the 'cost per tonne' of that movement is extremely competitive and of interest to global leaders that are currently working out how to do the same thing, but in a different way (click here to see a film about it) For more about 'cost per tonne' and how we aim to work that out, see below.
We would like to ask you to pledge to be a part of finding an economically viable, easy, effective and enjoyable solution to reducing emissions throughout the developed world.
The success of the Footsteps Project was due to the in-kind help and support of Truro Cathedral and all those who steered the project (see below). We need that support again please, by following the project and pledging to reach a certain amount to find the cost per tonne, but also to do something practical with it from June-December this year.
Well in the industry, this is what people really care about, what will it cost to do? By talking in tonnes of Carbon, we can compare the costs. This project could end up telling the global leaders that our project costs £30 per tonne of carbon to deliver, whereas Carbon Capture and Storage costs £30-120 per tonne. To go a step further, we want to work out what the individuals and organisations in Cornwall that did the 4488 top ten Carbon Cutting pledges, actually did and how much Carbon they cut out of their lifestyles. In the above picture, Carbon Visuals explore the Carbon footprint of the UK potato at the personal scale, as well as Carbon saving potential at the farm scale.
So for each pledge we need to work out an average
We can then talk about the effects of our project, for example:
Pledge 1: People make an environmentally conscious decision about their electricity supplier, helping them to source more of their energy needs from renewable sources.
Pledge 2: People make a healthy connection with their local shop and support their local economy, eating healthier and fresher foods, whilst naturally cutting down on food waste. Click here to see a video about this
Pledge 5: People can improve their health by walking more and cycling more. As well as enjoying the increased social interaction of public transport. Click here to see a video about this
Pledge 8: People can learn to live more sustainably, using resources they already have such as jumpers to reduce their energy use, whilst saving money on their energy bills. Click here to see a video about this
- Canon Philip Lambert (Truro Cathedral)
- Claire Eason-Bassett (Event Cornwall)
- Oliver Baines (Groundswell/Transition Ladock)
- Howard Curnow (Cornwall Wildlife Trust)
- Bert Biscoe (Cornwall & Truro City councillor)
- Phyllis Reddock (WI)
- Robin Sellwood (Transition Truro/Truro Cathedral)
- Sarah Wetherill (Transition Truro)
- Lindsay Southcombe (FOE/Green Party)
- Jemma Roberts (Coast).
