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London Borough of Harrow

… to take forward this agenda and to undertake further work to establish pathways to carbon neutrality by 2030, both as an organisation and on a borough-wide basis. 3. Background The Carbon Cycle and Human-induced Climate Change 3.1 Carbon is sometimes described as the backbone of life on earth. Every living organism has carbon atoms incorporated in their cells and, through a natural…

… process known as the carbon cycle, those stores of carbon are recycled between living organisms and the environment. 3.2 The carbon cycle has both fast and slow elements, the latter operating over timescales of millions of years. In the fast carbon cycle that is most relevant for our purposes: - Carbon enters the atmosphere as carbon dioxide (CO2) from aerobic respiration (the breathing…

… - is resulting in a net increase in CO2 in the atmosphere. In short, the carbon cycle is being thrown out of balance as a result of our current dependence upon fossil fuels. This imbalance is being exacerbated by deforestation and other land use practices that reduce the ability of the earth to absorb atmospheric CO2. 3.5 CO2 is one of a number of greenhouse gases (GHGs) that also include methane…

… for skilled, meaningful work that directly benefits local communities and contributes to low carbon outcomes. Carbon Neutrality, Sequestration and Offsetting 3.13 Achieving carbon neutrality for an organisation or geographic area, refers to reducing the carbon emissions associated with the human activity taking place there (principally those arising from the burning of fossil fuels…

…) and then taking actions to balance out the remaining carbon emissions that are attributable to the organisation or area. This balancing exercise is achieved by (i) absorbing, or sequestering, CO2 from the atmosphere and / or (ii) investing in initiatives which result in an equivalent reduction of carbon emissions elsewhere (typically this takes the form of funding additional renewable energy generation…