Climate change

About climate change
What changes can we expect?
What is the government doing?
What are Bury Council doing?

About climate change

The earth is surrounded by a layer of gases that act like the glass walls and ceiling of a greenhouse. These gases let the suns rays enter, but stop much of the heat from escaping, keeping the planet warm enough to allow life.

However, as people cause more greenhouse gases to be released more heat is trapped causing the climate to change unnaturally.

Greenhouse gases mainly consist of carbon dioxide water vapour, and also include methane and nitrous oxide.

Carbon dioxide (CO2) sometimes shortened to "carbon" is one of the main greenhouse gases and contributors to the greenhouse effect.

What changes can we expect?

Since the Industrial revolution in the 18th Century the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere has increased by 35% and the concentration of CO2 is higher than at any point in the last 650,000 years. Average temperatures have increased by 0.7°C in the UK since 1659 and the last six years have been the warmest since records began.

The government-funded UK Climate Impacts Programme 2009 looked at the likely impacts of climate change throughout the UK and predicted that over the next 40 years the north west of England will experience:

• warmer and wetter winters; and
• warmer and drier summers.

The likely rise in the average summer temperature will be 2.6ºC. The likely average summer rainfall will reduce by 18%.

In addition, the region may experience more extreme weather patterns, with more intense rainstorms, flooding, summer heat waves and droughts. Even if all greenhouse gas emissions stopped tomorrow, we are already locked into a global temperature rise of at least 1.4 degrees (since 1750) because of the delayed impact between emissions and temperature. It is already happening, and we need to act now to stop it getting much worse.

What is the Government doing?

The Government has set a legally binding target of at least an 80 percent cut in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, to be achieved through action in the UK and abroad. Also there is a target to reduce emissions by at least 34 percent by 2020 and both these targets are against a 1990 baseline.  To find out about what the Government is doing to combat climate change and to meet these targets visit the Department of Energy and Climate Change website.

What is Bury Council doing?

For many years, the reduction of carbon emissions has been a commitment of Bury Council and we were one of the first local councils to produce a Climate Change Strategy in 2002.  We have also signed the Nottingham Declaration pledging to address the causes of climate change and to prepare our community for its impacts.

Carbon Management Plan

In 2009 we were fortunate enough to be accepted onto the Carbon Trust's Local Authority Carbon Management Programme and working with the Trust has given us the assistance we needed to convert our enthusiasm and commitment into a plan of practical deliverable measures that we can pursue to reduce our carbon footprint.

We have set an aspirational target to reduce our CO2 emissions by 35% by 2014 based on a 2008/09 baseline. We hope that we can use the experience and knowledge we gain to encourage our partners and the wider community to join us in moving towards a more sustainable future.

The Government require that we report on our Greenhouse Gas emissions each year and this allows us to track our progress. Our Greenhouse Gas report for 2012 provided data on our emissions totals from 2008/09 to 2011/12. This latest report shows that since our 2008/09 baseline we have reduced our CO2 emissions by 9% which is a big step towards our aspirational target.

Adapting to Climate Change

The likely changes to our climate including the more extreme events will present problems and challenges to us all. Bury Council is  committed to working with our partners to ensure that we are sufficiently prepared for any risks to the public, local communities, local infrastructure, businesses, the natural environment and our own service delivery. We also want to make the most of any new opportunities that may arise.

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