How should a climate department cut its own emissions?

This article is written by Suzanne Hamblin-Boone, who leads the Environment Agency’s climate change communications at the UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra).

When I was a young, sprightly graduate in the year 2000, trying to work out what I wanted to do with my life, climate change almost never came up in conversation.

There was general chat amongst informed friends about animals going extinct, some people knew about the Kyoto Agreement (the world’s first global agreement to limit greenhouse gasses, signed three years before), and of course, the hole in the ozone layer worried many but hey, we had fixed that by banning CFCs, right?

And yes, cows produce loads of methane but come on, people have got to eat, haven’t they? Being vegetarian meant you were in a very small minority, and vegans — well, they were just plain weird. Too many lentils doesn’t do anyone any good.

Fast forward to 2020 and it’s obviously a very different story. Accurate modelling and evidence shows us that climate change is real, it’s caused by humans, and it’s not getting any better. Public acceptance of the evidence, coupled with more frequent severe weather events, means that it is now getting easier to persuade people to take action and create hope for the future.

A year of green action

Defra’s Year of Green Action in 2019 was about just that — connecting people with nature, and showing how we can all take positive action to improve our environment.

The Year of Green Action was a year-long drive to help kick-start involvement in projects that support nature under the three themes of ”Connect, Protect and Enhance” – in our own gardens, schools or workplaces, and as consumers. This was all grounded in the 25 year environment plan — which sets out the UK government’s goals for improving the environment, within a generation, and leaving it in a better state than we found it — because, quite frankly, it cannot be delivered by government alone.

It’s only by working with and through others, embracing all that businesses, communities and individuals have to offer, that we will succeed.

All types of people and organisations came together to show their commitment. For example, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), Barratt Developments and Manthorpe Building Products installed a “swift nest brick” on new housing developments, helping to address the decline in the UK’s swift population to fewer than 90,000 pairs, down from 150,000 pairs two decades ago.

Heron Hill school in rural Cumbria in the north west of England (think Beatrix Potter and the tale of Peter Rabbit country) appointed “bee teams”, planting over 2000 native trees, establishing “no mow” zones and a wild flower meadow to encourage our buzzy pollinators. Local authorities established funds for environmental projects, there were otter surveys, beach cleans – we’ve got a very long list of amazing work!

The personal commitment

The campaign also inspired staff across government and its arms-length bodies to reflect on what they could do to take positive action for the environment.

The Civil Service created a Network for Nature, which promoted staff volunteering, behaviour change pledges, departmental sustainability plans and staff charters. And this year the Environment Agency launched its “20 for 2020” campaign, asking staff to voluntarily commit to reducing their carbon footprint by 20%.

The campaign was started by staff members who felt guilty that, despite spending their days talking to others about protecting and enhancing the environment, they still drive a petrol or diesel car, fly on holidays, eat meat, and generally find it hard to adapt their lives in the ways we all know we should.

None of us can pretend to have all the answers, but the aim of the campaign is to share stories and the difficulties around taking those sometimes quite drastic changes needed to reduce our carbon footprint. It’s not a shaming exercise, or a competition to see who’s best, but a way of making changes without fear of judgment for failing, and a collective resource to provide support. The campaign already has over 200 participants, who have calculated their carbon footprint, identified where they will make changes and shared it on a group spreadsheet. Over the next few months, we’ll be collecting stories and sharing them across the Defra Group to help inspire and motivate others to make changes themselves.

Going net zero

The Year of Green Action was also a way for the Environment Agency (EA) to help staff focus on its goal of becoming Net Zero by 2030. The EA is an executive non-departmental public body, sponsored by Defra, which is responsible for regulating major industry and waste; treatment of contaminated land; water quality and resources; fisheries; inland river, estuary and harbour navigations; conservation and ecology;and managing the risk of flooding from main rivers, reservoirs, estuaries and the sea.

The aim is that by 2030 the organisation will be taking as much carbon out of the atmosphere as it is putting into it, so we are no longer contributing to climate change itself. As some readers may know, there is currently a lot of debate about whether net zero is the right goal to aim for, or if we should instead aim for negative emissions. In light of this, the EA has adopted a tough, internationally recognised definition of net zero: not just the carbon it produces but also the carbon produced through its supply chain. And it includes how staff get to work, so getting people to start thinking about their lifestyles now is very timely.

Getting to net zero is part of the EA’s sustainability goals, named “eMission2030”. Based on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, at the heart of it are four priorities — responding to the climate emergency, optimising use of resources, benefiting people and communities, and delivering environmental net gain.

The next 10 years will be a huge challenge. The EA’s current carbon footprint is 180,000 tonnes a year: 44,000t from its own activities, 136,000t from its supply chain. It will need to reduce significantly all of these emissions to get to net zero. But the challenge has been embraced by staff, who are brimming with ideas and initiatives to get there.

Of course, this is just a snippet of the work that we in the Defra Group and the UK government are doing to tackle the climate emergency. In this Year of Climate Action and the lead up to COP26, which will take place in Glasgow in November, there is much to be hopeful about. The past year has shown me not only how much love and passion there is for nature and wildlife, but also that people are now very receptive to taking action to preserve our wonderful world for future generations.

The threat of climate change is generally accepted overall and, as our species got itself into this situation through a series of individual actions, it makes me optimistic that individual actions will in the same way get us out of it. Quite a different place from the year 2000, huh? Someone should write a song about it. — Suzanne Hamblin-Boone