Frequently Asked Questions

Yes. Carbon Copy is the working name of Carbon Copy Network, a charity registered in England and Wales (1187420).

Carbon Copy is made up of four trustees and a small communications and research team, supported by an advisory board and working with technical and agency partners.

Carbon Copy is primarily funded by grants.

These action areas are simply a way of organising people’s initiatives, inspired by existing frameworks and current thinking on climate mitigation and adaptation.

These challenges have been drawn from research on the biggest environmental concerns in the UK.

A Local Climate Action Plan with a shared net-zero carbon emissions target requires collaboration between different organisations. A coalition of likeminded people in community groups (and community institutions like universities), local government and companies is needed to achieve meaningful change.

Our focus is not on individual lifestyle changes, although these are the crucial first step. Instead we are looking to build the momentum behind collective action where people live. Individuals can have an even greater impact through shared effort or by involving more people across different organisations.

Yes.

No. Our focus is on promoting and celebrating climate action initiatives that have been implemented locally to encourage faster learning, more collaboration and build momentum.

No. Carbon Copy is apolitical. We need engagement and leadership by government at all levels and by political parties of all colours.

From a personal perspective, it’s where we live and therefore where we are needed most. From a wider perspective, 85% of people in the UK are currently worried about climate change, 73% say that Britain is already feeling its effects, and 67% of local councils across the country have declared a climate emergency.

Yes.

No. As a visitor you can see all the carbon stories that Carbon Copy members have shared and see discussions in full related to any one of these initiatives.

As a fly on the wall, you cannot showcase your own climate action work or share your learning and insights with others.

As a member, you can share the initiatives you are working on and join in discussions to learn more. You can reach a broader audience, bring more people along with you, gain new insights and make new connections that can help your initiative continue to grow.

Carbon Copy is moderated to make it a safe space for everyone. Members who do not follow our Code of Conduct can no longer participate. The experience for everyone else is better and more constructive as a result.

Carbon Copy is a free service. There are no hidden charges or fees.

Click sign up and complete a simple online registration form so you can get started!

You can close your personal account on Carbon Copy at any time by going to your Account page. When you close your account, all your personal data will be deleted in accordance with our Privacy Policy.

It’s helpful for people to see where different kinds of local climate action are taking place. We identify areas locally based on existing local authority boundaries to align with council jurisdictions and with Climate Action Plans prepared by local councils.

It’s useful to see what other people from a similar group or type of organisation to you have to say, as they may be dealing with similar internal challenges and opportunities in taking collective action.

You can close your personal account on Carbon Copy at any time by going to My Account page. When you close your account, all your personal data will be deleted in accordance with our Privacy Policy.  

Your carbon story should be based on a project or a social enterprise. It may be in pilot stage or fully implemented but is more than a plan on paper. The initiative may be short-lived or long-lasting and either be live or recent enough to be relevant. Something that is (or could be) transformative. It’s place-based, somewhere in the UK. Big or small, it is a collective local action that addresses the environment and climate emergency.

By sharing your initiative with a different and diverse network of people taking climate action locally, you could reach a broader audience, bring more people along with you and gain new insights. At the same time, you would help inspire others to do the same and build the momentum behind climate action.

No additional work is needed, beyond completing a simple one-page online form about your initiative.

An initiative should relate to one of six broad action areas: renewable energy, buildings and the built environment, the circular economy, transport, nature and land use. Please click here for more info.

The themes are interconnected, so go ahead and identify more than one action area if relevant.

These action areas are simply a way of organising people’s initiatives, inspired by existing frameworks and current thinking on climate mitigation and adaptation.

You complete a simple one-page form online about your initiative and submit it for review by Carbon Copy.

We look for the following things in a carbon story: an initiative that is (or could be) transformative; can be copied; where the benefit is predominantly local; and worked on collaboratively.

Yes. Our focus is on building more momentum behind collective local action, so we would reject the following kinds of initiatives: • Implemented by individuals or nationally • Cannot be copied • Main beneficiaries are not local • Done in isolation or in-house • Greenwashing • Causes collateral harm • Socially exclusive or divisive

We read through the project for any obvious errors but rely on the author’s honesty on the details, as agreed in our Code of Conduct. As soon as we have reviewed the submitted initiative and it’s OK, we publish it online.

Yes, simply login and go to My Account page in the top righthand corner.

You can submit as many initiatives as you like. Please complete a separate online form for each one!

Your Area is intended to help people across the UK discover how their local community is responding to the climate crisis. You start from a map with a bird’s-eye view of all the local authority areas in the country, from places that have not yet declared a climate emergency to places that are targeting net-zero carbon emissions by 2030. Hover over any area to see the net-zero target date as well as the current emissions level. Click on the Climate Action Plan link to see more. You can also enter UK local authorities by name in the text box below the map.

It’s hard to visualise the volume of our emissions, so we have looked at it in terms of the number of hot air balloons that they would fill. If you look at the number of people living in your area and the total emissions, you can calculate the average tonnes of CO2 per person per year. One tonne of CO2 would fill a typical large hot air balloon (almost 3,000 cubic metres in volume) so we can imagine the volume overhead if our emissions locally were released in hot air balloons.

We have looked at the sources of our emissions by different sectors, from industrial and commercial to domestic and transport. These sectors are defined precisely by the UK government’s Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS) and the statistics they provide are the most reliable and consistent breakdown of CO2 emissions across the UK and over time.

Carbon emissions embedded in the imported goods we consume locally are typically not counted. However, these goods are produced and then transported to the UK because of our consumer demands. We have estimated these embedded emissions at a local level instead of ignoring them completely. For more, please read our blog post Don’t Just Consume It, Count It

Uniquely, members in Carbon Copy have discussions that are linked to specific initiatives. This matching of people’s insights with projects keeps the topic focused on practical solutions and on what’s working and not working.

You must sign up to become a member first before you can start or join a discussion.

Carbon Copy is moderated to make it a safe space for everyone. Members who do not follow our Code of Conduct  can no longer participate. The experience for everyone else is better and more constructive as a result.

No. It is an open network so both members and visitors can see any discussion but only members can join in.

There is nothing to stop you from connecting outside of the Carbon Copy network if you wish to have a one-to-one conversation. Most of our published initiatives include a link to their website or social media.