This week, The Hunts Post, launches its Time For Change environmental campaign.

Our aim is to create more awareness around environmental issues and provide examples and tips that will enable people to make small changes that cumulatively can make a huge difference in reducing global warming and helping us reach net zero targets.

According to the United Nations, greenhouse-gas emissions must be reduced to net zero by 2050 in order to preserve a "liveable climate".

The UN says this will require, "bold, urgent and wide-ranging action" from governments, businesses and, critically, individuals - us.

Over the next few weeks, we will bring you lots of information about how well the district is performing and also examples of some of the great projects out there that are already making a difference.

We will be producing our Simple Steps guides aimed at providing advice that will allow all of us to make changes to our way of life.

We are also launching our Environment Champions feature which will recognise a group or individual making a difference in our community.

The campaign will look at what local people, organisations and businesses are doing to support net zero targets as well as community projects and school initiatives.

According to the UN, demand for natural resources is at an all-time high and this continues to grow. The UN says resource extraction has more than tripled since 1970, including a 45 per cent increase in fossil fuel use.

We would love to hear from our readers, so if you are a business with some good 'green' credentials, or a school who has launched an environmental campaign, or an individual who is making a difference, then email: debbie.davies@archant.co.uk or alexender.gilham@archant.co.uk.


Fact File

* Only nine per cent of all plastic waste produced worldwide are recycled. Of this, 12 per cent is incinerated, while the rest ends up in landfills or dumped in the natural environment.
* Half of all the plastic produced is designed to be used once and then thrown away.
* As part of the United Nations’ sustainable development goals, the UK Government has committed to halving the UK’s per capita food waste by 2030.
* In 2018, the UK produced around 9.5 million tonnes of food waste, a 15 per cent reduction from 2007.
* According to Friends of the Earth, in the UK, we send more than 15 million tonnes of rubbish from our homes to landfill every year. That's the equivalent in weight of burying more 100,000 adult blue whales.
* Greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise and as a result, the Earth is now about 1.1°C warmer than it was in the late 1800s. The last decade (2011-2020) was the warmest on record.