Key Issues
Given how urgently climate change needs to be addressed, the UK needs to prioritise and focus on the areas from where the vast majority of emissions is currently coming.
The UK’s emissions can be broken down as follows: (DECC, UK 2006 GHG emissions in MtC02e - Million Tonnes of CO2e)
- Business – 32 per cent
- Transport – 24 per cent
- Residential – 23 per cent
- Agriculture – 8 per cent
- Waste management – 4 per cent
- Public Sector – 4per cent
- Industrial Process – 3 per cent
- Exports – 2 per cent
So for Governmental regulation focused on reducing the UK’s direct emissions, the areas of business, transport and residential are the three major priorities.
An alternative way to break down emissions is in a study by The Carbon Trust, which looked at the carbon emissions associated with all the products and services in the UK. The Trust found:
- Things we buy and use accounted for 46 per cent of emissions
- Home and energy use accounted for 27 per cent of emissions
- Transport use accounted for 27 per cent of emissions (Carbon Trust)
So, it is important to also consider the things people buy and use and this is, obviously, an area where design can play a key role in reducing waste