19 minute read
Climate crisis
DID YOU KNOW?
The UK’s Climate Change Committee website is a fantastic resource. See theccc.org.uk
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IT’S GETTING HOT IN HERE
With the Glasgow climate change summit still fresh in our minds and the environmental impact of everything we do under scrutiny, Shire takes a look at what is at stake and how we can help avoid a climate catastrophe
WHAT IS CLIMATE CHANGE?
Planet Earth has seen many climate changes in its 4.55 billion years. For example, 27,000 years ago most of Britain was covered in ice and glaciers. Although changes to the climate are natural, current changes are a result of increasing human populations and activities. When talking about climate in relation to human activities, climate change can be said to mean the build-up of man-made gases in the atmosphere which trap the sun’s heat, causing unnatural alterations in weather patterns around the world.
HOW IT WENT
At the end of last year climate change was the hot (excuse the pun) topic on everyone’s lips. The COP26 summit brought all things environmental to the forefront of the media and nations united in pledging to do more to help avert a natural disaster. But many of us still don’t really understand what it was all about and exactly what is at stake.
Over the next few pages we’ll look at how the climate is changing and what it could mean for our area, as well as thinking about what changes we could all make to help the situation. First of all, let us explain more about the COP26…
In general, COP26 was seen to be a success, with over 100 nations pledging to end deforestation by 2030. Some 28 countries signed up to the new forests, agriculture and commodity trade ‘road map of action’ and “Every one of us can make small 45 governments pledged urgent action to protect nature and shift to more sustainable changes that have a big impact ways of farming. Over 100 countries pledged to reduce methane emissions by 30 per cent on the future of our planet” by 2030. It was generally agreed that work to keep climate increases to 1.5 degrees at most was vital and most countries reaffirmed their pledge to do this. But it’s not just up to governments to make a difference – every one of us can make small changes that have a big impact on the future of our planet.
SUMMIT GOING ON
COP26 was the 2021 United Nations climate change conference. For nearly three decades the UN has been bringing together almost every country on Earth for global climate summits called COPs, which stands for ‘Conference of the Parties’. In that time, climate change has gone from being a fringe issue to a global priority. Last year’s summit, held in Glasgow, was the 26th annual summit – hence COP26 – and it had a unique importance thanks to a previous summit, COP21, which took place in Paris in 2015.
Something momentous happened at the Paris conference. For the first time, every country agreed to work together to limit global warming to well below 2 degrees and to aim for 1.5 degrees, to adapt to the impacts of a changing climate and make money available to deliver on these aims. The ‘Paris Agreement’ was born. Countries committed to national plans setting out how much they would reduce their emissions – known as Nationally Determined Contributions, or NDCs. They agreed that every five years they would come back with an updated plan, and COP26 was the first time this would happen.
WHAT IS CAUSING IT?
Greenhouse gases are the cause of climate change, the most well-known being carbon dioxide or CO2. Others are methane, carbon monoxide, sulphur dioxide, nitrous oxide and water vapour. These substances are not all bad – we need some of them to survive – and without them the world would be 33°C colder than it is now. Life would not be possible.
The trouble now is that the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere is higher than it would be naturally, and this is changing the world’s climate. In general, the planet is getting hotter. In some places it is also getting wetter. Others are getting windier, or drier. For example, the Sahara Desert is expanding and it is likely that this will continue due to climate change.
WHAT DOES IT MEAN FOR YOU?
It might be hard to understand the impact the climate crisis will have on all of us, but there are worrying reasons we should act before big changes close to home
The first victims of extreme climate issues are likely to be tropical island nations or those living in extreme hot or cold climates where change is already being seen. But if we don’t act soon, these changes will be visible and felt across the Shire patch. We’ve spoken to some experts who have explained the potential impacts in some areas.
According to oceanographers Dr Yueng-Dern Lenn, from Chester, and Dr Mattias Green, from Glan Conwy, the rising sea levels could cut North Wales’s main A55 road link, wash away railways, swamp holiday resorts and threaten businesses along the coast by the end of this century. The pair, who have worked with leading experts from around the world studying the oceans, their weather and climate and the challenges faced by the communities that live on their shores, have included their warnings in 30 Second Oceans, the book they edited and published last year. Featuring eminent contributors from around the world, it covers 50 topics about the challenges facing our seas and coastlines.
Dr Green, originally from Gothenburg, in Sweden, has highlighted the threat to North Wales and he said: “Here our major infrastructure links, the North Wales Expressway and the main railway line, are very close to the coast and already flood due to heavy rain. They will be at risk as sea levels rise. A combination of heavy rain and a storm surge from the sea and we’ll be in trouble. The railway line would go first. Between Bangor and Llandudno would be the first section affected, and there are places along the North Wales coast that will flood, particularly in North West Wales. There and along the Dee estuary there are thousands of static caravans and a major industrial area at Deeside which could be affected. We have already seen the Conwy Valley railway line, which runs four or five trains a day, closed several times in recent years and the track has been washed away by flooding. Add in a rise in sea level and it will be worse so it is inevitable that flood defences will have to be put in place at very high cost.”
Take a tour of the world’s oceans
WATER, WATER EVERYWHERE…
Coastal flooding around the world is set to rise by 50 per cent over the next 80 years, with millions of homes and businesses facing an uncertain future because of rising sea levels. Northern Europe, including the UK, is likely to be among the worst affected areas. Dr Lenn, originally from Singapore and a graduate of the University of San Diego in California, said: “We have already seen just south of Barmouth where “Coastal fl ooding around the the local council have decided they can’t defend a community from the sea. It’s like the parable world is set to rise by 50% over about not building a house on sand. Living by the sea is all well and good, but the challenge for the next 80 years” the UK is the effect of more extreme weather on where we live and where the sea starts.” And it is not just humans that will suffer if climate change is not brought under control, as animal experts have explained. Dr Cath Price, of Shropshire Wildlife Trust, has issued a video warning available on YouTube, where she explains the creatures most at risk. She points out that all of the top 10 warmest years on record have been since 2002, the warmest decade was the last one and the 21st century has been the warmest of the last three. “The ice sheets are melting and what goes up must come down,” she said. This has added to severe flooding. One of the most notable changes can be seen in our own gardens, which now have to be mowed earlier and later in the year as the growing season lengthens. Dr Price said that so far Shropshire habitats aren’t as badly affected as the Grampians or more extreme environments, but that some species are in danger of dying out, including some types of bee that live on the Long Mynd and Caer Caradoc, which are losing out as their environments change. Butterfies are also at risk from severe weather – heavy showers can destroy them when they are needing to migrate. “Most importantly we have to look after the habitats we have,” she said. “By looking after our wild places and special habitats we can give creatures time to adapt to changing conditions.”
DID YOU KNOW? The world’s oceans hold an estimated 352 quintillion gallons of water (18 noughts, in case you’re wondering)
OVER TO YOU
There are plenty of ways governments and nations can agree to make big changes – but little changes from us can make a huge impact too
Tackling the climate crisis comes down to several key factors, and most of us already play a part in most of them – whether we know it or not. So it’s up to us to do our bit to change our ways and help save the planet. First of all we need to change the amount of energy we use, how it is produced and how it is released into the atmosphere, perhaps by considering the following steps:
1. ELECTRICITY
If you’re leaving lights on when you don’t need them, turn them off. Switch off electrical appliances at the wall, don’t leave them on standby. The less power we use, the less CO2 will be used in producing it.
2. HEATING
There’s a good chance that your central heating and hot water system uses a gas boiler, so whenever the boiler is on, it’s burning gas and releasing more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Try turning your heating thermostat down a degree or two – the ideal is 18-20°C. If you feel a bit chilly indoors in winter, try putting on a jumper first, don’t just turn up the heat.
3. INSULATION
Once you have heated your home, it’s also important to keep that heat inside. So you could think about eliminating draughts, fitting heat-reflective panels behind radiators to make them more efficient and keeping doors and windows closed to keep the heat in and the cold out.
4. SUPPLY
Consider switching to a green energy supplier for your home’s electricity and gas. We still use fossil fuels like gas to generate a lot of our electricity here in the UK, but there are several 100 per cent renewable tariffs around now. If you want to take this a step further you could think about installing renewable energy for your home. You can use solar heating panels to make hot water and photovoltaic panels to generate electricity. You could also consider greener heating alternatives like air-sourrce or ground-source heat pumps, which use far less energy and emit less carbon dioxide than gas boilers.
Another huge area of concern is transport, so we should all think about how – and how often – we travel. Ideally we could choose to walk or take a bus or train, rather than going in the car, or even consider swapping our vehicle for a less-carbon-emitting electric one. Going on holiday closer to home would have a massive impact by cutting down on air travel. Every passenger on a long-haul return flight adds over a tonne of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere through burning jet fuel – that’s almost half of the annual CO2 emissions of an average UK citizen!
6. DIET
Our food is another big contributor to the climate change situation. Cows and sheep produce large amounts of methane, a greenhouse gas that’s over 80 times more powerful than carbon dioxide over a 20-year period. Because methane breaks down in the atmosphere, its impact reduces to about 28 times that of the same amount of carbon dioxide over a 100-year period. But that’s not all, because many farm animals in the UK are fed with soya, much of which is grown in South America on land that has been cleared of rainforest. So eating less meat, especially beef and lamb, and cutting down on dairy products, makes a big difference to the climate crisis as well as to loss of habitats and wildlife around the world.
7. HAVE YOUR SAY
We can all make small changes, but as we’ve already said, we need entire governments to take big steps to tackle the climate emergency. So if you want to see changes made on a higher level – tell them! Write to the government, your MP and local action groups and see who is doing what and how you can help. Make sure you understand the different policies of different political parties and use your vote to make your feelings known – or even join a peaceful protest to demonstrate.
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DID YOU KNOW? You can download tra c-free routes at sustrans.org.uk/getyour-tra c-freeroute-guides
THE GOOD NEWS
Before you start panicking about the state of the planet, we want to reassure you positive things are being achieved – and across the Shire patch in particular there are great reasons to be hopeful
As a country, the UK has a lot to be proud of when it comes to acting on climate change. Between 1990 and 2019, we achieved record ‘clean growth’ – our economy grew by 78 per cent and our emissions decreased by 44 per cent, the fastest decline among the G7 nations. We have also decarbonised our economy faster than any other country in the G20 since 2000. And we were the first major economy to put into law that we will reach net zero carbon emissions by 2050.
We are the largest producer of offshore wind energy in the world – with huge amounts being sourced from the North “Wales can become a UK hub Wales coast – and we have for this exciting new power vowed to end the sale of new petrol and diesel source, with other hydrogen cars here by 2030, putting the UK on course to be projects ongoing on Deeside in the fastest G7 country to Flintshire and at Milford Haven decarbonise cars and vans. What’s more, there are in Pembrokeshire” plans to plant trees on 30,000 hectares of land per year by 2025. So as a nation we are leading the world in tackling and adapting to climate change.
At the same time, we are recognising this is a major economic opportunity for the UK, which will create new, skilled jobs.
In Wales this is a crucial part of the country’s development as it has access not only to incredible natural resources along its coasts but also to environmental and technology experts and intelligence from its various climate knowledge hubs. Anglesey has already been identified as a location with the potential to transform our energy supply and provide hydrogen technology across North Wales and beyond. Dr Jones, from Bangor University’s Business School said: “The UK Government made £4.8 million available to develop hydrogen power in North West Wales and that will help social enterprise Menter Môn develop the technology in the region and also support the economy.”
Jones believes that North Wales has the infrastructure to make it the UK’s hydrogen capital, and added: “China, the EU nations and the USA see hydrogen as the rock star of new energies and are busy establishing a hydrogen economy. This is an exciting field and North Wales can be at the centre of it.
LEADING THE WAY
“Wales can become a UK hub for this exciting new power source, with other hydrogen projects ongoing on Deeside in Flintshire and at Milford Haven in Pembrokeshire,” he added. “What makes Anglesey important is that we have the potential link with other renewable projects in the region, such as the tidal potential of the Morlais project at Holyhead that Menter Môn is also involved with.”
Dr Jones believes hydrogen could also hold the key to powering transpOrt in future, through a Welsh invention from the 19th century – the hydrogen fuel cell was developed in Swansea by William Grove in 1842. Current electric car batteries are made using lithium and cobalt, chemicals that are difficult to extract and have major environmental hazards associated with them. They are also almost impossible to recycle.
He added: “Hydrogen fuel cells provide a possible solution to the challenge of needing to transform the transport sector and because it is the most common element on earth, supply is not a problem. A vehicle powered by a hydrogen fuel cell could cover up to 500 miles, recharge in 15 minutes and instead of carbon monoxide produce only steam. In North West Wales we’ve enough potential for green energy to be able to manufacture hydrogen through renewable energy.
“The world is uniting to fight climate change and North Wales is playing a vital part in keeping the planet on course for achieving net-zero emissions by 2050.”
DID YOU KNOW? From March every household in Wales is being given its own tree to plant. Tree-ifi c news!
Bangor University economist Dr Edward Jones, left, and Menter Môn chief executive Dafydd Gruffydd
MAN ON A MISSION
When it comes to setting a good example, one local man has not only spent his career tackling climate change head on, he’s taken all the knowledge he has gained to inform his home situation too
Martin and Caroline Schwaller with David Jones of Haford Renewables, at their home
When Martin Schwaller worked for one of the UK’s biggest pub chains, he turned them green by slashing the firm’s multi-million pound annual electricity bills. Now he is doing the same, albeit on a smaller scale, by turning his Anglesey home into a renewables paradise.
While he was working as renewables and sustainability manager for hospitality giants Mitchells & Butlers, whose 1,800 pubs and restaurants include Toby Carvery, Harvester and All Bar One, Martin made some huge changes. He said: “We’ve always been keen on green energy and when I was at Mitchells & Butlers their bills were so big they used to buy energy on the futures market. They spent £93 million a year and they had to pay for the 30,000 tons of carbon they produced annually, so I was able to save them a huge
amount by replacing old heating systems, putting in LED lighting and by encouraging a huge behaviour change programme among the 40,000 staff to make them aware of how to make savings.” So it’s only natural that in his retirement Martin and his wife Caroline “Hafod have done a great job for us, follow the same green principles.
which is why we’re having them back for a third time. I make pottery in a studio HOME GREEN HOME
at the house and I even run the potter’s Award-winning Hafod Renewables is wheel and the kiln o green energy. about to carry out its third installation for the couple. It installed air-source annually, so I was able to save them a huge This kind of technology is defi nitely the way forward for all homes” way forward for all homes” and solar systems at the 18th-century cottage they bought near Elim, and returned to do the same again at their new home, a five-acre property near Burwen. They also fitted underfloor heating and soon they’ll be back to put on more solar photovoltaic panels and a 9kw storage battery that should make the house carbon neutral – and save a lot of money. Hafod Renewables’ second installation for the couple was their 1,000th since the firm was set up by managing director David Jones, DID YOU KNOW? KNOW? a graduate in renewable energy, and his late father Richard in 2010 when the concept of renewables-powered domestic homes was in its infancy. A decade later the company is among the UK’s leaders 25% of electricity 25% of electricity in the field and covers an area from Anglesey and Gwynedd across generated in generated in North Wales and into Cheshire, Staffordshire and Shropshire. Wales now comes Wales now comes from renewable sources from renewable sources SUPER-POWERED
David said: “We looked at ground source heating but due to the island being on rock it would have been impracticable to excavate. Anglesey has high annual air temperatures so the air-source system will be super-efficient, and we also installed 16 solar PV panels on a barn which generates 25kw of electricity a year. Underfloor heating works really well from the air-source and provides hot water, with electricity supplied via 16 solar panels on an outbuilding. It really makes sense for homes where there isn’t mains gas but even where there is prices have risen and renewable options are likely to become more and more attractive financially in the future.”
Martin added: “Hafod has done a great job for us. I make pottery in a studio at the house and I even run the potter’s wheel and the kiln off green energy. This kind of technology is definitely the way forward for all homes. It is future proofing, not just for individuals but for the planet as a whole. I don’t know why the Government doesn’t just pay to put solar panels on every south-facing roof in the country – it would be the cheapest solution to the energy crisis.”
