The UK will host the 26th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) in Glasgow from 1st to 12th November 2021. The COP26 summit will bring parties together to accelerate action towards the goals of the Paris Agreement and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.

The City Council declared its own climate emergency in 2019 and one of the resolutions of that declaration was that the Council’s own emissions would be carbon neutral by 2030. That incredibly straightforward statement will be enormously difficult to deliver.

To start with, we have to know where we currently are – how much electricity do we use in our offices and the other buildings we own; how much gas do we use in the leisure centre to heat the pools, or in the Crematorium; how much fuel do we use to get to and from work and whilst we are at work; how much carbon is produced simply by our new construction, like Kings Square? This is all very difficult to measure, but it’s necessary simply to find a starting point.

How can we reduce, change or offset our carbon impact?

Then we have to look to see how we can reduce, change or offset any or all of the carbon impact. It’s easy to say “Drive electric cars”, but their manufacture produces carbon and not all electricity is yet renewable. However, I was interested to see that on several days in the 2nd half of 2020, more than 50% of all electricity in the UK was produced by wind power, predominantly offshore. Gas is even more difficult – some already is produced from biomass, but it is a very small proportion of the total produced.

It’s hard to see how we will ever eliminate all carbon production without new future technologies being introduced, so we have, in the meantime, to look at alternative ways of offsetting like planting new trees. The County Council has plans to plant an additional 35 million trees throughout the County over the next 10 years. We are also looking at greater use of heat pumps, both ground and air source, to provide heating and possibly cooling in summer.

The City Council, with its partners, is trying to point the way, but, as ever, it will be up to everyone to find their own ways to make small changes, which cumulatively add up to make a difference.