the 10:10 campaign

Why bother jumping out of the way of a speeding car?

Cutting 10% in one year is a bold target, but for most of us it’s an achievable one, and is in line with what scientists say we need over the next 18 months. We now know for certain that unless we act quickly to reduce our use of dirty fossil fuels, humanity will face terrible problems in the years to come. Politicians have so far failed to do what needs to be done, so it’s time for ordinary people to step in and show that we’re ready to defend our children’s futures. It’s now or never for the climate.

By signing up to a 10% target we’re not just supporting 10:10 – we’re making it happen. In our homes, in our workplaces, our schools and our hospitals, our galleries and football clubs and universities, we’ll be backing each other up as we take the first steps on the road to becoming a zero-carbon society.

It’s easy to feel powerless in the face of a huge problem like climate change, but by uniting everyone behind immediate, effective and achievable action, 10:10 enables all of us to make a meaningful difference.

why it's called 10:10
The idea is for people to reduce their Carbon Emissions (what's this ?) by 10% during 2010.

A Carbon Footprint includes direct and indirect use of carbon (indirect is when you by something that needed a lot of carbon to produce it); Carbon Emissions means only the carbon you actually emit.

what the Campaign hopes to achieve
The aim is to get as many people as possible to make a start on reducing their carbon consumption – so that everyone, including other countries, can see that we in Britain are serious about cutting our Carbon Emissions. If that happens, it will put pressure on our own Government and on other Governments in the aftermath of the Climate Change Conference in Mexico at the end of 2010.

That’s really more important than the actual carbon reductions that any of us can make.

The Copenhagen Conference (Dec/09) marked the end of traditional campaigning on climate change. Enough banners, enough websites, enough shouting in the streets. Now we need to roll up our sleeves and start solving the problem, all together. If we wait until the politicians get their act together, it will be too late.

There is no way that the politicians would be able to ignore the people making, say, 2% cuts from, say, UK, Australia, Germany, Iceland, Norway and the Maldives. Or, to put it more positively, the politicians would realise that the citizens are ready to build the low-carbon future and this will give them the political space they need to make the deal as strong as the science demands.

Click here to sign up

Actually it’s surprisingly easy to cut your Carbon Footprint: unless you've already slashed your emissions, the first 10% is the easiest. It's not too hard to save energy at home and cut down on unnecessary journeys. Click here for more on GreenTEA's Carbon Footprinting Service

If you work in a business, you may want to persuade it to sign up to the Campaign (Businesses are only expected to cut 3% of their emissions - the ones who could easily cut 10% have probably already gone bust). Click here for some of the advantages to businesses.

75,1341 people, 2,955 businesses, 221 Schools, and 2,360 other organisations, including 212 local councils who between them cover over a third of the UK population, which means that more than 20 million people will be getting their services (housing, waste, street lighting etc etc) with 10% less emissions than they did last year.