Zero Carbon Britain – A Perspective From Wales

What Is Zero Carbon Britain All About?

Zero Carbon Britain: Rethinking The Future

Since its inception in 2007, the Centre for Alternative Technology‘s (CAT) Zero Carbon Britain (ZCB) project has set out to offer the hard data and confidence required for visualising a future where we have risen to the demands of climate science; to remove fear and misunderstandings and open new positive, solution-focused conversations.

The UN Paris Agreement states that humanity must reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by the middle of this century. This is a big shift, but we have no option other than to succeed if we are to avoid really dangerous climate change. Previous Zero Carbon Britain research from CAT has shown that we can meet this challenge using technology available today.

Zero Carbon Britain: Making It Happen

CAT’s more recent research project, Zero Carbon Britain: Making it Happen, explores the economic, cultural and psychological barriers to achieving net zero greenhouse gas emissions, and sets out the positive, connected approach we need to overcome them – joining up research and practice across disciplines, borders, sectors and scales.

Zero Carbon Britain: Making it Happen offers a ‘toolbox’ of ideas that can help inspire, inform and enable us to make change happen. Working within an interdisciplinary framework, the report brings together thinking from researchers working in psychology, sociology, political science, economics and other social sciences, as well as faith and spiritual practice, arts and culture. Drawing on a wide range of peer-reviewed journals, books, reports and articles, as well as stories from real-life projects, it explores ways that we can overcome barriers in innovative ways.

What Could Zero Carbon Mean for Wales?

In contrast to the usual doom and gloom scenarios around climate change, the Zero Carbon Wales events, held in Bangor and Cardiff, were designed to inspire attendees and to open up new ways to collaborate. To find out about our events in more detail read our blog ‘Achieving a Zero Carbon Wales Together’; which summarises the different activities and includes personal reflections from Chloe Jenkins of Environet Cymru on the Zero Carbon Wales message.

You can also watch our short video which highlights some of the different perspectives going into these events, what people thought of the workshops, and their hopes for how this can be taken forward. Don’t forget to check out Environet’s Tackling Climate Change pages for more ideas on how your organisation can support climate-friendly living.

Who Else is Getting Ready for Zero?

If you would like to find out more about other examples of cities and nations embedding Zero Carbon action plans visit the following links:

– Report: Who’s Getting Ready for Zero?

– Zero Carbon Britain Facebook Group

– Zero Carbon Manchester Facebook Group

– Zero Carbon Liverpool Facebook Group