Climate Action Programme- Hot Air or of Real Importance?

Simon Chambers, Chair, Climate Justice Group

The Law Society of Northern Ireland has contracted Business in the Community NI (BITC) on a collaborative Climate Action Programme with a focus on actively engaging and educating businesses across Northern Ireland to take proactive steps towards climate action.

The Climate Action Programme offers a comprehensive platform for businesses to understand, measure, and strategise their approach to environmental sustainability, aligning seamlessly with the Law Society’s recent sustainability strategy. The collaborative Climate Action Programme presents a powerful opportunity for the Society and its members to be recognised as leaders in championing climate action and contributing to a greener and more resilient Northern Ireland.

The first step in the programme is Carbon Literacy Training. Carbon Literacy is defined as:

‘An awareness of the carbon costs and impacts of everyday activities and the ability and motivation to reduce emissions on an individual, community and organisational basis.’

BITC offers training aids to support understanding and to raise awareness of the core elements of carbon literacy, and the opportunities, risks and challenges that climate change will present.

Simon Chambers, Law Society Council member and Chair of the Climate Justice Group, was invited to attend a recent training session provided by BITC. He offers his experience of the course saying:

‘The training was both informative and practical, comprising a look at the science behind emissions and the impacts of climate breakdown. The training went further, examining the business and personal impacts on the environment and what can be done to reduce our emissions. The first workshop was held in person at the Danske Bank headquarters adjacent to the City Hall, Belfast. Danske helped Business in the Community launch their pilot initiative in 2020 and have kindly agreed to host the workshops since. Two further workshops are held on-line.

Alongside me were representatives of diverse businesses from across Northern Ireland which led to interesting and engaging crosspollination of ideas and sharing of valuable insights into how businesses from across the spectrum view and are tackling the climate question and its impact on their business. The course aims to develop greater awareness of greenhouse gas costs and impacts of everyday activities, educating upon the ability and means to reduce emissions on an individual, community and organisational basis, without losing sight of the need to balance profit with social and environmental responsibilities. There is really no question that climate change can now be witnessed on our doorstep.

Locally, climate change will not herald more clement temperatures but will lead to much heavier rainfall, as increased temperature inexorably leads to higher levels of rain through increased seawater evaporation, as befits our status as a small island in the North Atlantic.

The attendant localised flooding has already adversely disrupted local town centres and businesses recently and there is a very strong scientific basis in asserting that climate change occurs not just through natural process but through anthropogenic (man-made) emissions.

20 of the hottest years on record have occurred in the last 22 years and Europe is the continent showing the fastest heat rises. If global temperatures increase by 3 degrees, most of Africa and southern Europe will reach a permanent drought state. Belfast could see a sea level rise of 94 centimetres, enough to submerge the Titanic Quarter, arguably the area with the highest local economic growth.

The frequency and intensity of storms and extreme weather events is expected to increase here, and Northern Ireland is one of the most nature-depleted countries in the world, ranking 12th globally, with the Republic of Ireland ranked 13th. We have lost more than 80% of the local curlew population, for example.

The human impact of climate breakdown as it will affect our businesses include heat exhaustion and associated inability to work, damage to property and infrastructure, lack of food and water supply, increase in global political instability and conflict leading to mass migration and the reversing of years of improvement in diet and food production.

The Course then takes a more positive tone and looks at what we all can do to ameliorate the causes and effects of climate change. It focuses on risk identification and opportunities, encouraging a focus on the supply chains that feed our businesses, the availability or otherwise of raw materials, asking participants to consider moving away from a more traditional supplier base to more environmentally conscious suppliers with a greater emphasis on ensuring product integrity and adopting a circular economy model.

Participants are supplied with the tools to measure their business emissions, both directly and indirectly, allowing one to calculate their Streamline Energy and Carbon Reporting figure. This is becoming increasingly important as firms look to reduce their carbon footprint, which can be offset by reference to actions taken by suppliers. Of particular interest to solicitors is increasingly banks, mortgage providers and corporate clients will look to its “suppliers”, i.e. the law firms they instruct, to exhibit evidence of carbon-cutting measures and certification of steps taken, as part of the rationale in engaging a particular firm.

A key, final, part of the certification process is setting out in application form what you/ your firm is committed to changing about your current working practices to seek more environmentally friendly solutions.

This is where the training comes to the fore, as successful participants will be certified as meeting all the requirements of the Carbon Literacy Standard and thus for the purposes of the workplace, education and community should be regarded as carbon literate. The Carbon Literacy Project (CLP) have also developed a downloadable badge that successful learners can use on their email signature, LinkedIn, social media or anywhere else appropriate to share their carbon literate status.

I would commend participation in this Course to all members and found it a vastly educative and commercially enriching initiative.’

If you are interested in finding out more about this training initiative, please email policy@lawsoc-ni.org