LIFTING THE LID ON PERSONAL CLIMATE STRATEGIES

Even when we know the climate crisis is bringing big changes, it’s often hard to know what that means for us as individuals, what’s best to do at a personal level, or when to get started.

And what information is available is much less about personal strategies than about big stuff like the Emissions Trading Scheme, or doubling the country’s electricity generation. But there are five million of us Kiwis who will be seriously affected, and together we can make a real difference - and the sooner we get cracking the more difference we can make and the easier it will be for us.

In this workshop we’ll cover a few climate change fundamentals, and then do the ground work for developing personal emissions reduction strategies, in a mini-version of the way governments and corporates do. We will:

• establish our personal greenhouse gas “emissions profiles” (how our own emissions add up)
• set reduction targets (a bit like the way the “Zero Carbon (Amendment) Bill” proposes “Net Zero” emissions by 2050)
• priority plan for what to tackle, and when and how to do so
• and learn the importance of monitoring and refining our approach as we go.

Lindsay Wood thrives in the space between science and technology of climate on the one hand, and the people who need to use such information on the other. He engages worldwide in climate crisis issues, writes and speaks extensively across many media, and issues the regular newsletter “Climate Matters”.

resilienz

We can do this!

NB: Workshop now extended to 2.5hrs to include more time to work through personal emissions strategies

HOMEWORK!

If you would like to work through a personal emissions strategy with Lindsay, please bring:

• Pen and paper, calculator/phone. OR notepad / laptop.
• Indicative info on household energy use (electricity kWhr, gas kg LPG other – heating oil etc). Either for a month or, preferably, for a year, and what type is used for what (water heating; cooking; space heating etc.)
• Ditto for private vehicle transport: car(s) fuel type and CC rating (if poss), and mileage, and an approximation of how it is used (% commuting, school pick up, sports, vacation etc.)
• Ditto for flying – especially passenger km and whether long haul (international) or short haul (domestic).

Photo: Greves Garten Cohousing, Germany - a carbon-neutral model for the future

Supported by the Whau Low Carbon Network