Responding to climate change

We need to take action to combat climate change - and we need to take it now.  But what actions should we take to deal with this complex issue?

There are two, complementary, ways of dealing with climate change.

• We can try to reduce the things that cause the change - mitigation.
• We can adapt to the effects of the changes.

Tackling the cause

We can try to stabilise and reduce the concentrations of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases that cause climate change in the atmosphere.  Reducing emissions is the most important way of reducing the extent and effects of climate change. This is known as mitigation.

International agreements such as the Kyoto Protocol address this issue.  To be successful, however, we have to make these agreements a reality at a local or community level.  CCW is leading by example in reducing its own energy consumption and is also encouraging others to live in a more sustainable way.

Planting trees that lock up carbon dioxide and protecting major sources of carbon such as blanket bogs can also help, but only in a small way.

Adapting to the effects

Even the most optimistic scenarios predict at least 40 years of significant climate change - and that's if we manage to control global emissions successfully.  In reality, the rate of world-wide emissions of carbon dioxide is rising at a greater rate than any time in the past.

Significant environmental changes are inevitable.  So we need to adapt our policies for nature conservation, landscape protection and recreation.