Calculators
Carbon footprint calculator
Carbon budget calculator by country
Recent Posts/Updates
The climate situation, at the end of 2024
Carbon budget calculations for the average country
Carbon budget calculations for the UK
Zero Hour: Climate urgency denial
UKHACC: Climate urgency denial: Correspondence
Previous Posts
Reasons to be very concerned
Key points on the climate emergency
Human activity has changed the climate
The climate has changed: The physics
Mankind has changed the climate
Mortality from climate change
Mortality and other costs of climate change
Time is running out
The UK's share of the global carbon budget runs out in 2 years
The global carbon budget runs out in 7 years
System failures
UN Secretary-General: "Government leaders are lying"
The UK Net Zero 2050 strategy would take three times the UK's share of the global carbon budget
Pleas from those most affected
Young people are pleading for action: 10 key messages
Greta Thunberg's "blah blah blah" speech, Milan 2021
Pleas from the world's poorest
Action needed
UN Secretary-General: "A grassroots movement that cannot be ignored"
Actions needed
Climate emergency ten-point action plan
1. Overall aim and priority
International commitments given
Why 1.5°C?
Why climate action is an overriding priority
2. Global strategy: Limit further emissions to 400 billion tonnes CO2
Global strategy: Limit further emissions to 400 billion tonnes CO2
3. Allocation of the global CO2 budget between countries
Allocation of the global CO2 budget between countries
The maths of staying within the UK's carbon budget: Halve emissions every 3 years
Why count consumption rather than territorial CO2 emissions
Double digit percentage annual emission cuts
"Zero carbon sooner" CO2 budget report from CUSP
4. Reviewing progress against the CO2 budget
Global emissions are still rising
5. Identifying reasons for lack of progress on climate change
Why progress has been so poor: Summary
What should have happened?
The UK's Seven Principles of Public Life
Decision making has not followed the science
All sections of society are failing
It is a system failure rather than a failure of individuals
Cognitive biases, flawed reasoning, fallacies and denial dominate opinions and decision making
Climate denial: literal, interpretive and implicatory
Climate urgency denial
Checklist for auditing consistency with the IPCC
Auditing consistency with the IPCC: Summary for selected groups
5a. Governments
UK Climate Change Committee: Not consistent with the IPCC
UK Government fallacy: overclaiming the reduction in UK CO2 emissions
5b. Media deficiencies
The BBC: Climate denial
The Guardian: Climate denial
The British Medical Journal: Climate denial
5c. Campaigning deficiencies
Ineffective campaigning
Friends of the Earth: Climate denial 1: Court case 2022
Friends of the Earth: Climate denial 2: Response to CCC annual report 2023
Fridays for Future: Consistent with the IPCC
Climate Uncensored: Consistent with the IPCC
Campaign against Climate Change: Consistent with the IPCC
Ethical Consumer Magazine: Climate denial
Climate Emergency UK: Climate denial
Client Earth: Climate denial
Sustrans: Climate denial
6. Improving decision making
Reliable (safe system) decision making and policy making
7. Actions by sector
Specific actions needed: Summary
National governments
Local government
False solutions to be avoided
'Offsetting'
Planting trees
Tree planting claims by Zurich scientists were withdrawn
Electric vehicles: not an immediate solution
8. Individuals
Individuals
Reduce your carbon footprint: at least 10% per year
9. Ensuring good decision making
Challenging fallacies
Common climate fallacies
UK Government
The 'Net Zero 2050' UK Government fallacies
Ethical Consumer: Inconsistency with the IPCC in the Climate Gap reports
Critique of report methodology
Correspondence with Ethical Consumer
Civil disobedience
Civil disobedience in a democracy: Q and A
Technicalities
UK average GHG emissions
International comparisons
Emissions by sector
Home energy
"Green electricity"
Cars
Food
Health, education, etc emissions
Bus travel
Train travel
Aviation
Calculator version information
Quotes
Quotes
Links
Links
About
About us
Posts in 2022:
Consistency with the IPCC
Climate urgency fallacies
Action needed
Passivhaus home standards
Challenge fallacies and malpractice
Challenge fallacies, incompetence and malpractice
Ensuring good decision making
Assessing performance on the climate emergency
Climate Urgency Realism or Denial score
Climate urgency denial in UK Government scientists
About
Why trust this website?
Posts in 2020-2021:
Action needed
'Hydrogen power' is not the answer
Ensuring good decision making
Civil disobedience and the law
Extinction Rebellion
Technicalities by sector
Basic UK energy and greenhouse gas statistics
References
Posts in 2019:
The climate crisis and what to do about it
Climate change: the basics
Simple solutions for the climate crisis, which should have been implemented already
Action needed
Local government: Make walking safe
Organisations
Awareness raising
Leaflets, video
Reasons for optimism
Decline in UK domestic aviation
Decline of domestic aviation in Sweden
Standards of administration in a democracy
Effective planning
Performance assessments
BEIS is not telling the truth on carbon emissions
Transport for the North: Failing on the climate crisis
Steve Rotheram: failing on the climate crisis
Wirral Council's emission reduction trajectory
The climate emergency has become desperate
Among climate scientists and informed citizens, there is a rising feeling of desperation about climate change. This is from a combination of factors:
- Global warming has now reached 1.2°C.
- There is a scientific consensus that the rise must be kept below 1.5°C.
- The CO2 released into the atmosphere accumulates - it takes centuries or millenia to decline. So we cannot continue until climate change becomes a critical problem and expect it to recover.
- There are several positive feedback loops. For example, a considerable amount of the earth's surface is covered by snow or ice. These white areas reflect sunlight back into space, but once they melt, the darker water or land absorbs more of the incident sunlight, increasing its warming effect.
- Global warming is not uniform. While the average warming is 1°, some areas have already experienced 6° of warming.
- Despite the warnings and international agreements, total global emissions have continued to rise.
- In the most polluting countries, emissions are hardly falling.
- The UK's share of the global carbon budget will run out in 3 years, i.e. at the end of 2024 - see document 33.
First published: Apr 2019
Last updated: 10 Feb 2022
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