Going Carbon Neutral:The Village Surveys

What’s the problem?

• We saw in the film how carbon dioxide (CO2) levels in the atmosphere are rising.

Measured atmospheric concentrations of CO2 – Mauna Loa, Hawaii

Increasing CO2

• More CO2 – disrupts the natural

carbon cycle – increasing the

Greenhouse Effect

Source:http://www.windows.ucar.edu/tour/link=/earth/climate/images/carboncycle_jpg_image.html

Too much here

The Greenhouse Effect

• A natural effect that warms the Earth by 30C - life depends on it!

• But putting more CO2 into the atmosphere means it warms up more - leading to Climate Change

Source: www.defra.gov.uk

What can we do?

• To slow down the warming we can try to re-balance the carbon cycle by:– putting less carbon dioxide into the

atmosphere– and taking more out

• The film presents us with a challenge

• What’s our response?

Carbon budget

• We can start by looking at what we are doing locally

• We can calculate a carbon budget ~ a bit like using a bank account ~ to see what we are putting in and what we are taking out

A carbon budget for Ashton Hayes

• Within the village we need to know where we are now - a baseline survey to calculate

Sources of CO2 - activities that put CO2 into the atmosphere

Sinks of CO2 - activities that take CO2 out of the atmosphere

CO2 Sources

Use of kettle for 1 year = 74 kg CO2 (0.073 t CO2)

Use of car for 1 year = 4023 kg CO2 (4 t CO2)

A return flight London to Paris = 112 kg CO2 (0.11 t CO2)

Source: Edinburgh Centre for Carbon Management (2000) Estimates of Emissions for Selected Items and Activities, ECCM Technical Document No 4.

Use of household refrigerator for 1 year = 112 kg CO2 (0.11 t CO2)

CO2 Sinks• Plants absorb CO2 as they grow so the more

trees we grow the more CO2 is absorbed - a way of ‘off-setting’ CO2

Hardwood trees sequester 7417 kg CO2/ha/year (7.3 t )

Conifer trees sequester 11176 kg CO2/ha/year (11.0 t )

To offset the CO2 emissions of all UK

residents for 1 year would need

51 million ha forest

– twice the land area of the UK!

Sources: Cannell, M. (1999) Growing trees to sequester carbon in the UK: answers to some common questions, Forestry, 72 (3), 237-247. Edinburgh Centre for Carbon Management (2002) Estimation of Carbon Offset by Trees, ECCM Technical Document No 7. Broadmeadow, M. & Matthews, R. (2003) Forestry Commission Information Note: Forests, Carbon and Climate Change: the UK Contribution.

The balance• To become carbon neutral we need to balance

our inputs and outputs• We don’t know our current position but it may

be …

Sources Sinks

We need to find out….

The Village Surveys• In May/June some students from the

University of Chester will be in the village carrying out surveys of our sources and sinks of CO2

• They will wear sweatshirts with the University and Going Carbon Neutral logos so they will be easy to identify

Surveying the sources• The students will conduct house to house surveys

asking questions about:– Energy use and travel patterns– Interest in planting trees, using solar panels, using small,

quiet wind turbines– Using alternative forms of transport

• We will be working closely with EEAC, EST and Cred and we aim not to duplicate questions

• This information will help us to calculate sources and how we might reduce them

Surveying the sinks

• The students will try to assess sinks by:– Using aerial photos and satellite images to

map vegetation in the village– Field survey e.g. counting trees– The household survey will also ask about

trees.

AshtonHayes

Land Cover Mapping

Source: Centre for Ecology and Hydrology Land Cover Map 2000

Compiling the budget• The survey results will be used to calculate

equivalent values of CO2

• We can then compile a budget and work out how much we have to do to get to:

Sources = Sinks

And thus Carbon Neutral

Feedback and Development

• The students will produce a written report of their findings and also make a presentation of them to the village.

• In future years we will survey the uptake of energy efficiency measures, rates of tree planting etc and recalculate the budget so that we can monitor our progress.

• Look out for the sweatshirts in May!!