Why is it important to me?
Climate change doesn’t just affect people on the other side of the world, it affects us here in Salford.
We’ve seen extreme weather leading to flooding of over 400 homes in Broughton and Kersal back on Boxing Day in 2015. We’ve also seen flooding on local roads and roundabouts and scorching heatwaves making it difficult to sleep and challenging for people who work outdoors. This type of weather would become more frequent and more severe if people across the world did nothing.
Climate change also affects food production and prices, and also has an impact on construction costs and home insurance. It affects where we might be able to go on holiday, with popular destinations suffering from forest fires, flooding and extreme heat.
Salford, along with the rest of Greater Manchester, is committed to becoming ‘carbon neutral’ by 2038. This means the amount of carbon we release into the atmosphere is the same as the amount of carbon that we remove.
There’s lots happening to achieve this target – but more is needed and we need everyone to do their bit. If we all made a few small changes, it would add up and make a huge difference.