Taking action on climate change

Mar 20 2008 By The Journal

CLIMATE change is the greatest environmental challenge facing the world today. Rising global temperatures will bring changes in weather patterns, rising sea levels and increased frequency and intensity of extreme weather events. The effects will be felt here in the UK; internationally, there may be severe problems for people in regions that are particularly vulnerable.

In December, the Government Office for the North East signed the North East Climate Change Declaration along with 10 other regional organisations. Among other things, the declaration committed us to achieve a significant reduction of greenhouse gas emissions from our own operations, especially energy sourcing and use, travel and transport, waste production and disposal and the purchasing of goods and services. We are now working with regional partners to encourage all other organisations to sign up and show their commitment to tackling climate change.

So what are we doing? We see the action we take on climate change as part of our contribution to embedding sustainable development principles and practice in our organisation. We need to change behaviours, so we have developed a sustainable development action plan to guide us, whether in reducing our CO2 emissions, changing the way our staff travel to work or on business or improving how we use resources.

As an organisation, we have already taken some practical steps:

:: Changing our pool car fleet to more energy-efficient vehicles that will give us a 30% reduction in CO2 emissions over the next three years compared with our old fleet;

:: A free Carbon Trust survey of our building to see if we could improve its energy efficiency – we could, and by spending around £16,000 we could save more than that on our energy bills and reduce our annual CO2 output by about 97 tonnes;

:: Working with Newcastle City Council to develop our new travel plan to enable more of our staff to use public transport;

:: Considering how we can improve our recycling performance.

Small beginnings, yes, but as David Miliband said when he launched the Evening Chronicle Go Green campaign last year: “By doing little things in our own lives, we can all make a big difference to the environment on a global scale.”

Because we represent central government in the region, we are also working with partners to ensure that regional strategies and plans help us to mitigate and adapt to the impact of global climate change.

For example, the Regional Spatial Strategy sets out Government planning and transport policy for a 15-20 year period. It includes a significant and comprehensive climate change policy as well as policies on the location of development, encouraging sustainable forms of transport, encouraging and supporting use of renewable energy sources, and waste management. Together these will contribute to addressing climate change.

We are also active in the Regional Climate Change Partnership that brings together public, private and voluntary sector organisations to develop a shared understanding of climate change issues in the North East. It seeks to increase recognition of the need to adapt to the likely impacts of climate change and identify mechanisms to increase efficiencies and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The North East Climate Change Action Plan will be published later this year and will identify, agree and prioritise a range of actions required across the region and identify key responsibilities for delivery within different sectors. We are ready to play our part.