The human impact on climate change is not a new issue. In fact, we have known for well over a century that human activity is driving an increase in global average temperatures (global warming) and the result is our climate is changing. The effects of climate change are far reaching and will disproportionately affect the most vulnerable in society.
The scale of the issue of climate change is too large to ignore and just carry on ‘business as usual’. Therefore, it is vital that we change our behaviour, from the food we eat to how we travel. Raising awareness and understanding of the issue and solutions to climate change is key in supporting people to change behaviours. This is why we offer training on how our activities have impacted climate change and what actions we can take to reduce our impact on the planet.
In 2016, we were delighted to start offering Scotland’s first ever accredited Carbon Literacy training course for Communities. We organise the training as part of our management of the Scottish Government’s Climate Challenge Fund, which is supporting community-led projects to reduce local carbon emissions, improve their areas and help them to adapt to the impacts of climate change.
Since 2016 over 370 people from Shetland to the Scottish Borders have been certified as Carbon Literate. The training is accredited by the award-winning Carbon Literacy Project (CLP), run by the Manchester-based charity. The training is free to attend for representatives of any Scottish-based community-led organisation interested in tackling climate change.
As an organisation we have further developed our Carbon Literacy offering and are now delivering training to schools (Climate Ready Classrooms) and organisations (Carbon Literacy for Interested Organisations, CLIO).
We were honoured to have won Gold at the Carbon Literacy Trust Award ceremony, held in Manchester on 21st March 2019. We are just one of five organisations in the UK and the only organisation in Scotland to have attained Gold accreditation for being a Carbon Literate Organisation.
In the coming year, we will continue to deliver Carbon Literacy training to organisations, schools and communities across Scotland. If you would like to get involved in any of our Carbon Literacy training you can find out more via: Carbon Literacy for Communities; Climate Ready Classrooms and CLIO.
