The International Panel on Climate Change (IPPC), the UN’s panel of climate change scientific experts, has spent years assessing the scientific evidence from across the world. In 2007 it concluded that “warming of the climate system is unequivocal”.
Global temperatures are rising because people are consuming fossil fuels – coal, oil and gas – at an unsustainable rate, releasing carbon dioxide and other ‘greenhouse gases’. These trap warmer air in the earth’s atmosphere, causing the so-called ‘greenhouse’ effect.
It’s thought that the global climate has already warmed by almost 1°C. It might not sound like much, but 150,000 deaths a year are currently resulting from the effects of climate change, and the 2003 heat wave killed over 2,000 people in the UK alone. The UN predicts that in 2010 there will be up to 50 million environmental refugees.
In September 2006 the Tyndall Climate Centre in Manchester advised that a 9% annual reduction in UK emissions was necessary to stabilise climate “with drastic cuts by 2010”. UK energy consumption has been increasing by about 1% a year since 1990.
Most governments agree that increasing energy efficiency is vital in the battle against climate change. Not only is it the quickest way to reduce CO2 emissions – giving us more time to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels and also to increase the supply of alternative energy sources – but it also has huge financial benefits.
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