Copyright © 2012 Northamptonshire County Council

Carbon Tradingby

The boffins at the County Council

Carbon dioxide (CO2)

...and puts extra carbon dioxide into the atmosphere

...produces energy... Burning fossil fuels...

which is making the earth warmer.

Why does it matter?

Because climate change affects all living things.

PeopleAnimals

Plants

In the winter we use more energy for things like heating and lighting so more carbon dioxide is emitted in the winter than in the summer.

It shows the proportion of

carbon dioxide emitted by

a school each month.

Sep 5%

Oct 8%

Nov 11%

Dec 12%

Jan 13%Feb 11%

Mar 11%

Apr 7%

May 6%

Jun 6%

Jul 5%

Aug 5%

Take a look at this pie chart:

What do you notice?

CO2

SCHOOL

But what does this carbon dioxide look like?

CO2CO2

Actually, it’s about 330 balloons every minute

(and even more in the winter!)

Trading (buying and selling things)Imagine you have some pocket money to spend on sweets. You decide to buy seven lollipops and plan to eat one each day for the next week.

M T W Th F S Su

Unfortunately, on Thursday you drop your lollipop on the floor and your pet dog, Rambo, eats it.

What will you do now?

1. Go back to the shop to buy another lollipop?

2. Eat Friday’s lollipop on Thursday instead?

3. Decide it’s probably better for you to go without?

4. Perhaps there’s something else?

Oh no! The shop has sold out.

This is ok today, but you’ll still be one short on Sunday.

Probably best for your teeth but you really wanted that lollipop.

What will you do?

Yes! Your friend has some lollipops too, and says you can have one of hers.

M T W Th F S Su

She also spent her pocket money on lollipops and thinks it’s only fair that you pay her for it.

However, your friend isn’t as generous as you might hope.

Reluctantly, you hand over your money and take the lollipop, vowing to be more careful in future (or at least never to eat sweets when your dog is around).

Let’s go back to when you had all seven lollipops:

M T W Th F S Su

Imagine instead that you decide it really would be better for you to give up sweets.

Giving up altogether is going to be hard so you start by eating one less lollipop each week...

So you don’t eat Monday’s lollipop.

Monday

’s

lollipopIt’s a struggle but on Sunday you feel really proud of yourself because you still have that spare lollipop from the start of the week.

What will you do with it?

Will you...

1. ...eat your Monday lollipop on Sunday to reward yourself for going without?

2. ...keep it for next week?

3. ...find a friend to sell it to?

4. Or something else?

You’re so greedy! This wasn’t your aim at all.

Great! This option will save you money.

Even better! This option will make you money.

Carbon tradingRemember we said that ‘trading’ means buying and selling things?

Well, carbon trading means ‘buying and selling carbon’.

CO2CO2

CO2

Cloudberry

Primary

Baldmoney

Primary

CO2

CO2

CO2

CO2

CO2 CO2CO2CO

2

CO2

CO2CO2

CO2

Let’s take two schools,Cloudberry Primary and Baldmoney Primary:

The pupils at both schools care about how much energy they use because they know that using energy produces carbon dioxide and this is causing the climate to change.

The Eco Teams at both schools have done energy audits(a sort of survey) to find out where, when and how much energy their school is using.

The pupils at Cloudberry Primary and Baldmoney Primary have also worked out how much carbon dioxide is produced from the energy they use.

CO2

CO2

CO2

CO2

Cloudberry

Primary

Baldmoney

Primary

CO2 CO2

CO2

CO2

CO2

CO2

Let’s take a closer lookat how much carbon dioxide

each school produces.Cloudberry Primary = 8 tCO2

Baldmoney Primary = 4 tCO2

The baseline is how much CO2 the schools produce now.

baseline

cap

The cap is the maximum CO2 the schools are allowed to produce next year.

Cloudberry Primary tries really hard to save energy

(and carbon).

They insulate their swimming pool, draught-proof their

doors, and everyone remembers to switch off their

computers.

Unfortunately, the pupils and teachers at Baldmoney

Primary keep forgetting to do things.

They leave lights on in empty classrooms, and have their

heating turned up much too high.

Let’s see what happens to the schools’ carbon

dioxide emissions:

Cloudberry Primary has saved loads of energy and

reduced their carbon dioxide emissions.

Baldmoney Primary haven’t reduced their energy use

and carbon emissions at all.

They have wasted energy and produced more carbon

dioxide than is allowed under the cap.

Baldmoney Primary needs to get rid of some CO2 to get

under the cap.CO2CO2

How can they persuade Cloudberry Primary to take

their extra CO2?

Carbon trading helps to reduce carbon dioxide emissions

because buying and selling CO2 means the total emissions are

kept under the cap.

tonnes

But what’s this got to do with carbon trading?

So how can you save carbon and cash?

Don’t waste energy

Be smartwhen you do use energy

Get your energy from renewable sources instead

And the moral of the story?

And try to eat less sweets because they’re bad for your teeth!

Try to use less energy because it’s bad for the environment (and your bank balance).

Copyright © 2012 Northamptonshire County Council