Rishi Sunak’s New Approach to reach Net Zero
Rishi Sunak’s speech on Climate Change and Net Zero this week caused shock waves amongst those who had expected the UK to be on track with the Green Initiatives by 2030.
The Prime Minster made his announcement by saying that “ I know they (us) watch the news or read the papers and wonder why in the face of the facts as they have them, choices are made as they are. I know that they (us) dislike Westminster game playing, the short termism, and the lack of accountability. But most of all I think people are tired of the false choice between two versions of change that never go beyond a slogan.”
Trees and their Importance
Climate change, being environmentally friendly, thinking carefully about our carbon footprint is at the forefront of our minds, but for many years, across the continents, there have been concerns about the way in which trees are treated.
Trees act as a filter, trapping dust and absorbing pollutants from the air and each individual tree removes up to 1.7 kilos every year. They are also an excellent form of noise reduction and provide shade from solar radiation.
Research has shown that trees absorb carbon dioxide as they grow and the carbon that they store in their wood helps slow the rate of global warming. They reduce wind speeds and cool the air as they lose moisture and reflect heat upwards from their leaves. It’s estimated that trees can reduce the temperature in a city by up to 7°C.
Tree Preservation Orders were introduced so that local planning authorities could protect specific trees, groups of trees or woodlands.
Plan for Car Chargers in all New Homes in England
In a speech to the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) in the north-east of England on Monday, the prime minister will reveal plans, briefed as “world-leading”, to toughen up and improve regulations for new homes and buildings.Under the government’s plans, set out by the prime minister Boris Johnson at the CBI business leaders conference on Monday, new homes must be equipped with charging infrastructure from next year.
Ross Easton, a director at the Energy Networks Association, added that while the plans for more home chargers was “great news for those living in new homes” the government “must make sure access to charging points is not exclusive, stressing that the charging points must be accessible to everyone.”
Sarah Winward-Kotecha, the director of electric vehicles at RAC raised concerns that it is important to note that a lot of newly built housing stock, said it was “important to remember that a lot of new housing stock in cities does not even come with parking, let alone charging points.
The motoring group has called for the government to make high-speed car charging available to more motorists by focusing on the roll out of rapid chargers in public areas so that
The government’s plans may have failed to consider that many new buildings are built without parking spaces for the sole reason of encouraging people to travel by public transport, which is better for the environment.
COP 26 starts in Glasgow
What is Cop 26 ?
The Cop, or conference of the parties, is the overall decision-making body of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. This is its 26th annual meeting, where decisions are made by 197 countries to prevent “dangerous” human interference with the climate.
The conference officially started on Sunday 31st October 2021 and is scheduled to finish on November 12.
The conference will be held at the Scottish Event Campus in Glasgow.
In 2019, Glasgow city council set their target of becoming a carbon neutral city by 2030. The city was awarded the status of a “global green city” by the Global Forum on Human Settlements last year.
Adopted at Cop21 in 2015, the most significant conference in recent years, the Paris agreement is a legally binding treaty on climate change in which countries are supposed to increase their efforts every five years and submit new targets to keep global temperatures “well below” 2.0C above pre-industrial levels and “endeavour to limit” heating to 1.5C.
With leaders and dignitaries from almost 200 countries attending, Cop26 is effectively acting as a deadline to secure tougher targets from countries that have not already submitted them and fulfil the aims of the Paris agreement.