Going Carbon Neutral: The Village Surveys

What’s the problem? We saw in the film how carbon dioxide (CO 2) levels in the atmosphere are rising. Measured atmospheric concentrations of CO 2 – Mauna Loa, Hawaii

Increasing CO 2 More CO 2 –disrupts the natural carbon cycle –increasing the Greenhouse Effect Source: Too much here

The Greenhouse Effect A natural effect that warms the Earth by 30  C - life depends on it! But putting more CO 2 into the atmosphere means it warms up more - leading to Climate Change Source:

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 CO 2 - activities that put CO 2 into the atmosphere Sinks of CO 2 - activities that take CO 2 out of the atmosphere

CO 2 Sources Use of kettle for 1 year = 74 kg CO 2 (0.073 t CO 2 ) Use of car for 1 year = 4023 kg CO 2 (4 t CO 2 ) A return flight London to Paris = 112 kg CO 2 (0.11 t CO 2 ) 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 CO 2 (0.11 t CO 2 )

CO 2 Sinks Plants absorb CO 2 as they grow so the more trees we grow the more CO 2 is absorbed - a way of ‘off-setting’ CO 2 Hardwood trees sequester 7417 kg CO 2 /ha/year (7.3 t ) Conifer trees sequester kg CO 2 /ha/year (11.0 t ) To offset the CO 2 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), 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 … SourcesSinks 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 CO 2 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.

Ashton Hayes 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 CO 2 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!!