The Government's Act on CO₂ Campaign

Small actions, added together, can make a real difference in tackling climate change.

The Together campaign and the Government are working together with a number of partners to raise public awareness of climate change and the ways in which it can be tackled. The key vehicle for this work is via the ACT ON CO₂ campaign, which aims to raise awareness of the link between personal behaviour and climate change. The campaign highlights the wide range of individual behaviours that cause CO₂ emissions and the impact we have on climate change.

Climate change is a serious problem that affects us all. There is strong evidence that human emissions of greenhouse gases are changing the world’s climate. The main greenhouse gas is carbon dioxide (CO₂), produced when we burn fossil fuels like coal, oil and gas for energy.

More than 40 per cent of CO₂ emissions in the UK result directly from actions taken by individuals in the home and through their transport. There is real potential for people to contribute more to reducing CO₂, and we need to make it simpler and easier for them to do that.

The steps Government and its partners including Together are taking to help individuals reduce their CO₂ footprint include:

• Promoting the ACT ON CO₂ calculator –it enables individuals to calculate their personal carbon footprint and work out the action they need to take to reduce it.
• Providing assistance to help people in fuel poverty insulate their homes and install more energy efficient boilers – 1.3 million households have been helped with this so far.
• £3 billion in energy improvements for households since 2001 – through the obligation on energy companies to encourage households to take up efficiency measures, including low-energy light bulbs, insulation, and high-efficiency appliances and boilers. The current phase of the obligation, which runs from 2008 to 2011, will deliver overall lifetime carbon dioxide savings of 154 MtCO₂ by 2010, stimulating about £2.8 billion of investment by energy suppliers in carbon reduction measures.
• Phasing out inefficient light bulbs and removing inefficient white goods from the market.
• Introducing energy audits for homes and businesses. The Energy Saving Trust has carried out 4.5 million home energy checks so far, with 450,000 in 2006 alone.
• Introducing a Quality Assurance Scheme for Carbon Offsetting – this will enable people to make informed choices about the most effective offsetting products on the market.

The steps the Government is taking to improve its own record and that of the wider public sector include:

• Making Government buildings more energy efficient
• Low carbon schools
• Using low-carbon technologies across the public sector
• Reducing the environmental impact of Government travel

All this action is backed by a Climate Change Bill that lays the foundations for moving the UK to a low carbon economy. The Bill sets out a series of clear targets for reducing carbon dioxide emissions – including legally binding targets making the UK’s targets for a 60 per cent reduction by 2050 and a 26 to 32 per cent reduction by 2020 legally binding.