What's next for the Community Climate Action Project?
The Community Climate Action Project is a partnership of six community groups across Bristol, who are all committed to taking inclusive action on climate change. We are passionate about creating spaces for our communities in the city to act for the planet and improve their lives in the process.
Keep reading to find out our latest updates from the project...
Globally and nationally, the climate crisis will affect the most at risk in society. Studies show that groups and communities most affected by environmental and climate issues are the least likely to be listened to or allowed access to spaces of decision making. Disadvantaged communities are likely to be people who have contributed least to the climate crisis, but are set to feel the negative effects more acutely.
We have seen a key milestone for the Community Climate Action project this month, having completed a Climate Footprint Report for our refugee and migrant tenant, through the Centre for Sustainable Energy.
The climate context in Bristol
Bristol is committed to tackling the climate emergency, having pledged to reduce carbon emissions to ‘net zero’ and become climate resilient by 2030.
The Bristol One City Plan sets out the city’s climate vision as:
‘In 2030, Bristol is carbon neutral and climate resilient. We have collectively achieved a fair and inclusive transition; capturing the opportunities of new jobs and investment, improved health, wellbeing and education, and a better environment for local people. We have helped lead the way to a safer global climate.’
Our Community Climate Action Project aims to make sure our communities are able to benefit from the city plans to tackle climate change, from accessing green jobs to ensuring city-wide clean air quality.
Our resident’s carbon footprints
A Carbon Footprint is a measurement of a person’s contribution to carbon emissions through their everyday life and activities. So much that we consume and do on a daily basis has a hidden environmental cost.
The Carbon Footprint Report, put together by the Centre for Sustainable Energy, found that ACH’s tenants have a below average carbon footprint when compared to the Bristol average.
‘ACH’s residents have a very low carbon footprint – on a per person basis, it is less than a half of the Bristol average.
We can see that the average carbon footprint of an ACH resident is very low compared to the Bristol average – 2,475 kg.CO2e compared with 6,053 kg.CO2e.’
When you break down the carbon footprint of our residents, you find that: 33% of emissions come from energy in the home, 5% from transport use, 29% from the things they eat and drink, 21% from the buying of goods, 8% from the use of services, 3% from leisure and entertainment and 1% from waste management.
Towards collective action
The Carbon Footprint analysis is a really interesting insight into individual’s impact on the world – but we won’t go far in the fight against climate change without collective action.
‘Whilst many of us can make changes to our daily living to reduce our carbon footprints – in small and big ways – working together at the community and even city-wide scale is where bigger change is possible. Our collective voice is also stronger when asking local and national government for the policy and regulatory changes needed to enable us to reduce our emissions and improve our communities and quality of life’
This is why the project is a partnership between different groups in the city, to create a network of collective action across a diverse coalition.
Together, our next steps on the Community Climate Action project are to work with our commissioned project artists to create art that engages with the climate crisis. We are also creating interactive multimedia assets (leaflets, videos and an immersive powerpoint) to communicate to communities and planning events for July.
Read the report:
