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Learn more about climate change

What is climate change?

Climate change is a long term change to temperature and weather patterns. Since the industrial revolution in the 1850s the average temperature has risen by 1 degree centigrade. This is due to human activity such as burning of fossil fuels like coal, oil, and natural gas.

Fossil fuels currently create most of the energy that powers our everyday lives - from the electricity and heat used in our homes and workplaces, to the fuel used in transport, and the industrial processes that create our food, clothes, building materials and everyday products.

Burning fossil fuels releases “greenhouse” gases such as carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxides. Over time, large quantities of these gases have built up in the atmosphere, forming a blanket around the planet that traps heat from the sun and causes the earth to heat up.

We are already seeing the impact of this warming, including more extreme weather, heatwaves, flooding, melting of polar ice, and crop-failure. Human activity is also causing other changes to earth's natural systems, including air pollution, water pollution, loss of biodiversity, extinction of plant and animal species, and land use changes. These changes increase the risks of climate change and reduce our ability to respond.

Experts believe that we have an opportunity to stop and/or reverse some of these changes but may have to adapt to others.

You can find out more about climate change in Lambeth and share your ideas for action by exploring the rest of this website. There's also lots more information about climate change at a global and national scale on websites like the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the UK Committee on Climate Change (CCC) .

What is the Lambeth citizens' assembly on climate change?

A citizens’ assembly is a group of people who are brought together to discuss an issue, and reach a conclusion about what they think should happen.

The Lambeth citizens' assembly on climate change – funded by the council but organised by independent experts – will develop a set of proposals to respond to the climate crisis in Lambeth.

Lambeth residents will be selected at random, but be fully representative of the borough’s make-up. Together, the assembly will review evidence, discuss trade-offs and arrive at recommendations that can command broad support from right across the borough. The outcome of the assembly, along with engagement with the borough’s key stakeholders, will be developed into a borough-wide climate action plan for Lambeth.

This website is an opportunity to contribute to the evidence base and ideas that will be considered by the citizens' assembly and in the development of the Lambeth climate action plan. To learn more about citizens' assemblies, take a look at this resource from Involve .

There are lots of words and phrases used to talk about climate change that might be unfamiliar. Some of the important ones are explained below:

  • 1.5 degrees C: the maximum global temperature rise above pre-industrial levels that we can allow before causing catastrophic impacts of climate change.
  • Carbon neutral / net zero: making sure the amount of greenhouse gases we put into the air is the same as the amount we remove. To achieve net zero, we must both rapidly reduce greenhouse gas emissions - particularly carbon dioxide - and invest in things that will remove gases from the atmosphere, such as tree planting and restoring natural landscapes. 
  • Climate justice: addressing the climate crisis while also making progress towards a fairer future for all.
  • Co-benefits: positive effects that a policy or measure aimed at one objective might have on other objectives in sectors such as health, mobility, resources, building & economy. For example, action on climate change can deliver many social and economic benefits, including improved health and wellbeing, lower energy bills, green jobs, greater equity and stronger communities . This toolkit from Ashden explains more.
  • Green jobs: work in industries that are needed for a cleaner future. These jobs have a positive impact on the environment either directly or indirectly. For example, renewable energy generation, retrofitting buildings, conserving and restoring natural landscapes, education, policy and campaigning.
  • Green recovery: making sure that a cleaner, greener future is at the heart of plans to rebuild a strong economy after Covid-19.
  • Retrofit: the construction and operation of buildings is a major contributor to climate change. To address this, new buildings should be designed to be net zero. But 80% of the buildings we will use in 2050 have already been built , so we must also urgently improve the energy efficiency of the existing building stock, and move away from gas heating. This is known as retrofitting and could include measures like better insulation for walls, floors and roofs and replacing gas boilers with heat pumps. There are 29 million homes in the UK to retrofit by 2050 (never mind all the other buildings) which is one every 35 seconds from now on!

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