Website of the UK government

Football goes carbon neutral

Ipswich Town Football Club has reached its goal of becoming the UK’s first carbon neutral football club. The club encouraged fans to make energy saving pledges and worked to decrease its own emissions. The result? It offset the entire 3,200 tonnes of carbon dioxide that the team generated in a season.

• Ipswich Town's energy saving season Opens new window

The first carbon neutral village

The community of Ashton Hayes wants to be England's first carbon neutral village. Through planting trees and encouraging energy saving measures, they have already cut their emissions by 20 per cent in the first year. Other communities in the UK are also working together to decrease their carbon footprint.

• Visit the Ashton Hayes website Opens new window
• Exeter - another community saving energy Opens new window

LogiCity climate change game

LogiCity is an interactive computer game set in a 3D virtual city. The aim of the game is to reduce the carbon footprint of an average resident, along the way picking up information about climate change and how to make a difference.

• Play LogiCity Opens new window

Cycling creates climate change heroes

With road transport responsible for more than one fifth of the UK’s CO2 emissions, the Cycle Hero website aims to turn ordinary people into heroes – by getting them onto their bikes and reducing their emissions from transport. The website also gives information about climate change to the cycling community.

• Become a cycle hero Opens new window

The Climate Challenge Fund

Some of the projects above were made possible through the Climate Challenge Fund (CCF). Since it was set up in 2006, 83 projects have received funding from the government to tell people in the UK how and why the climate is changing, and how they can make a difference. To find out more about the CCF, email: ccf@defra.gsi.gov.uk

• Climate Challenge Fund projects tackling climate change Opens new window

Climate Change Champions

Nine Climate Change Champions from 10 to 18 years old have been spreading the word about climate change, designing leaflets, t-shirts, presentations, videos and even radio programmes to get the message out to their communities.

To contact your nearest Climate Change Champion, email: climate.champion@defra.gsi.gov.uk

• Climate Change Champions - find out more Opens new window

What the government is doing

There are many ways the government is helping to reduce emissions now and in the future:

• in the home, the government is working towards phasing out inefficient light bulbs and making new homes more energy efficient
• travel and transport initiatives include improving vehicle fuel efficiency and supporting cycle training for children
• in the community, the government is increasing recycling facilities, and working with the regulator to set targets for water companies to reduce both water leakage and the total amount of water supplied
• the government is setting targets for itself; it aims to reduce emissions from its offices by 30 per cent and to recycle 75 per cent of its waste by 2020
• internationally, the government is fulfilling its commitments under the Kyoto Protocol: the UK’s net greenhouse gas emissions should be around 23 per cent below 1990 levels by 2010. It is also working to reach global agreement on action to avert dangerous climate change.
  

• Ways in which the government will help people act
• How the government is reducing its emissions Opens new window

More useful links

• Greener living: a quick guide to what you can do