During lockdown you may be doing a lot more jobs around the garden. Some of you as a result will be having bonfires, while others will be having BBQ’s. But although pollution has slowed down a great deal in recent weeks, there is still a lot of pressure to lower emissions – and for very good reason. We need to reduce our carbon footprint and ensure we take control of global warming as outlined in the Paris Agreement.
The Paris Agreement?
The Paris Agreement’s main aim is to increase the global response to the growing issue of climate change. This will be achieved by keeping a global temperature rise this century well below 2 degrees celsius above pre-industrial levels, and to make a real effort to limit the temperature increase even further to 1.5 degrees celsius.
Increased pressure is on vehicle manufacturers, heating appliances (including gas fires and wood burning stoves), aviation and many other sectors to be cleaner, and reduce carbon footprint – many of which, sadly are facing significant problems due to coronavirus, and not all will survive, so how this will impact on what they will do with regards lowering emissions – only time will tell. But these issues aside, one thing appears to be overlooked in the UK and not thought much about are bonfires and burning outdoors, which have come under scrutiny in recent times.
Bonfires are already illegal in Ireland, France and other EU countries. However, in the UK they’re not. According to various sources, it’s been suggested that if randomly burning garden waste and similar was banned in not just the UK but in all counties around the world, there would be a measurable difference to air quality and the fight against climate change.
So why hasn’t this happened yet? It’s possibly due to the fact it would be hard to regulate, and also due to the fact there may not be a huge amount of research to suggest the exact amount of pollution bonfires create. Either way anything, which can reduce pollution should be seen as a good thing.
More on this subject may progress in the future….
How Coronavirus is “helping” with climate change.
Although the impact of coronavirus is devastating and tragic, it does show what happens when we use our polluting vehicles and machinery less. As we win the fight against the virus, there will no doubt be a return to the hussle and bussle of global daily life. Would we have learned anything as regards pollution though? Maybe seeing the benefits of cleaner air may just give the world more of an incentive, now that they have seen what a world with less pollution may look like.
