Apart from terrorism and security the two issues that are dominating the G8 summit between the leaders of the world's major economies - global warming and reducing crippling poverty and debt - particularly in Africa. What the leaders decide will affect millions of people for years to come and will make a real difference to the quality of life for whole nations.
But we are not world leaders so what can we as individuals do to contribute and make a difference - to contribute towards a better and a fairer world? If you want to match the current spirit and make the world a better place we offer you some ideas. You may not think that your small changes can make a difference but if everyone contributes then it all multiplies exponentially and can make a huge changes possible.
Ideas to help make poverty history
Ideas to help tackle global warming
So what can you do to help combat global warming?
To prevent the escalation of climate change, UN scientists advise that we must reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 60%. This means phasing out the use of fossil fuels and switching to sources of clean, renewable energy, not only crucial to stabilise climate change; but also inevitable to meet our long term energy needs. The average home can generate around 6 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions - one of the main causes of climate change. Because our homes and cars make up more than 50% of Britain's total CO2 emissions it means that we can all contribute to solving the problem.
Adopt a low carbon lifestyle
Use renewable energy - Switch to a supplier of "green energy" which means that your energy will come from wind or hydroelectric sources. You can find a supplier of green energy easily with our partner uSwitch. If you fit solar panels to your home several companies will also give you credit for the electricity you can generate
Buy energy saving bulbs - Lighting produces a massive 7% of the UK's CO2 emissions, yet only 10% of the energy used by standard bulbs contributes to light, the other 90% is generating heat. Compact fluorescent bulbs (CFL's) use about a quarter of the energy and last ten times longer than standard incandescent or halogen light bulbs. For each bulb you fit, you could save 44 kg of CO2 and £7 every year. Start by putting them in the lights you use the most. That way they will save you money fastest. If every UK home replaced three ordinary bulbs with energy-saving ones, we would save over 1.5 million tonnes of CO2 annually and the electricity equivalent to the output of a typical power station every year.
Change your boiler - Replace your old boiler with a gas condensing version and save 32p in every pound on your heating bill and reduce CO2 emissions by a tonne. From 1st April 2005, all boilers installed in England and Wales must be condensing boilers in the 'A' and 'B' bands. High-efficiency condensing boilers are more efficient than standard boilers (spelling savings of up to a third on typical annual heating bills) and also benefit the environment by reducing your home's CO2 emissions by one tonne. If every UK home had a high-efficiency condensing boiler, we would save 17.5 million tonnes of CO2 per year and enough energy to heat nearly 5 million homes for the same period.
Turn your thermostat down - With the temperatures rising, your skin and the environment could do with a break from the damaging effects of central heating. By turning down your thermostat by just one degree, you could reduce your home's CO2 emissions by 400kg and save around £30 a year on your energy bills. If we all did this today, we would save over £650 million worth of energy and nearly nine million tonnes of CO2 emissions every year. Check that timers on heating and hotwater heaters are set for the times the heat is needed not more.
Insulate well - An insulating jacket for your hot water tank can reduce its heat loss by 75 per cent and save 150kg of CO2 and £10 - £15 every year. We could cut CO2 our emissions by two million tonnes every year - enough to fill 11 million double-decker buses - if everyone in the UK put a jacket on their hot water tank. Draw your curtains at dusk, they help to both keep heat in and make the rooms more comfortable by cutting down on drafts. Fit draftproof strips to windows and external doors. Loft insulation - this can save between £80 and £100 a year and result in one less tonne of CO2 entering the atmosphere - so make sure your roof insulation is at least 15cm, and your hot water pipers are lagged.
Recycle and reduce rubbish - According to Recycle Now, your home produces around one tonne of rubbish annually. To cut this down, separate and recycle your paper, glass and plastic waste. Opting for recycled and recyclable products with minimal packaging will also help to reduce the environmental impact of your waste. If every UK home recycled 50 per cent of their rubbish, our annual CO2 emissions would fall by up to six million tonnes. To find out where you can recycle in your local area, contact your local authority or simply reuse your old carrier bags when you go shopping.
Fill cavities Uninsulated walls account for up to 33 per cent of the heat lost in your home so insulating them is one of the most effective ways to save energy in the home. Filling cavity walls could save around one tonne of CO2 and up to £100 every year. Grants are available through Energy Saving Trust to help with the costs. Check out www.est.org.uk for more information or call 0845 727 7200.
Choose your appliances carefully The next time you replace your kitchen appliances, look out for the Energy Efficiency Recommended (EER) logo (an orange and blue label) as an EER appliance uses less energy and will cost you less to run than ordinary appliances. An EER fridge-freezer for example, could save you 230 kg of CO2 and £35 a year. If we upgraded the UK's cold appliances to energy-saving ones, we would save 6 million tonnes of CO2 each year - enough to fill over 35 million double-decker buses! We would also save over £950 million worth of energy annually.
Cooking To boil water use a kettle not an open pan, always cover the element of an electric kettle but only boil as much water as you need. Boiling vegetables only cover them with water, then cover the pan with a lid.
Choose your paint carefully - The use of certain compounds in conventional paints can lead to global warming. So, if your house is in need of a makeover, opt for solvent free paints that do not contain any harmful compounds. They come in a range of colours and finishes and can be found in most large DIY stores.
Don't waste water - Water as a resource is often taken for granted in the UK. To conserve water, don't leave taps running, opt for a shower instead of the tub (they use just two-fifths of the hot water needed for a bath), wash your car with a bucket instead of a hose.
Cool wash - Set your washing machine to as cool a wash as possible. Modern washing powders are just as effective at lower temperatures. Washing your clothes at 40 degrees rather then 60 uses a third less electricity, so a third less CO2. Make sure you use your washing machine only with a full load.
Appliances
Remember an appliance on standby uses nearly as much electricity as when being used.
Energy used by common appliances
This is how much electricity some common household appliances use. The unit
is 1 kilowatt hour (kWh).
Computer 4 house use per day = 1 unit
Cooker ring one hour = 2 unit
Oven one hour = 3 units
Dishwasher full load = 2 units
Economy 7 Slimline on full per night = 14 units (night rate)
Fan heater one hour = 2 units
Convector Heater one hour = 2 units
Fridge freezer one day = 2 units
Oil filled radiator one hour = ½ unit
Electric Bar heater one bar one hour = 1 unit
100w light bulb 10 hour = 1 unit
Low energy 100w equivalent 10 hours = ¼ unit
40w fluorescent light 10 hours = 4/10 unit
Cars and transport With road transport responsible for 26 per cent of the UK CO2 emissions, we should be walking or using public transport whenever we can. Reduce the amount of CO2 your car emits by switching off your engine when stuck in traffic jams and sharing lifts when you can. Regularly tuning your car and checking tyre pressures will also help to cut your CO2 emissions. Motorists who drive 100 miles a week generate 1,430 kg of CO2 a year, but people travelling the same distance on trains would be responsible for 319kg, and those travelling the same distance by bus for just 268kg. Better still, walk or cycle.
These simple tips can help you make a difference:
- drive smoothly and consistently using higher gears when you can;
- switch off your engine when you're not moving;
- share your journeys where possible;
- keep the weight of the car down;
- use your air conditioning and any other electronic devices sparingly;
- service the car regularly and maintain the right tyre pressure.
If you're buying a new car, a smaller one will be more fuel-efficient, cause less pollution and save money on petrol and tax. You can probably convert your car to run on cleaner fuel such as liquefied petroleum gas (LPG, sometimes called autogas).
Many manufacturers now sell cleaner cars such as petrol electric hybrids that can travel 55 miles or more on a gallon of petrol! Cleaner, low carbon cars qualify for reduced tax (Vehicle Excise Duty) and are exempt from the London Congestion Charge (worth up to £2,000 a year).
Offset carbon emissions
Follow the lead of the band Coldplay and help neutralise your unavoidable carbon emissions by planting trees. Future Forests offers you the chance to work out how much carbon dioxide you are creating and then how may trees it would take to neutralise it and you can then purchase trees for £10 each which are then planted around the world. Coldplay financed the planting of thousands of trees in India and Mexico to neutralise the production of their three albums.
It can help you calculate the numbe of trees you would need to buy to become carbon neutral - for your home, your car and personally. In addition you can holiday guilt free - one single shorthaul flight produces roughly the same amount of the global warming gas as three months' worth of driving a 1.4 litre car. And we're all flying more. For example if you go off to Italy for your holiday you would have only to buy one tree for £10 to be carbon neutral.
Invest ethically
Invest your money in companies that offer ethical or green products or services - for example companies that are producing renewable energy. You can do this either directly by buying shares in the companies but you may need to do a lot of work checking out the company's ethical policies. It might be easier to do it via a route where specialists have already done the check such as via a unit trust and if you had a personal or stakeholder pension you can invest ethically too here. Check out our ethical finance area or visit www.ethicalinvestment.org.uk
Help Make Poverty History
"Before you've finished your breakfast this morning, you'll have relied
on half the world"
- Martin Luther King
Just think about it - the coffee, tea, orange juice, sugar, fruit and cereals you eat and drink will have all come from various places round the world but who will be making the most profits from your shopping basket spend? It is highly unlikely that it will be the farmer who produced the raw ingredients - it will be the middle men, the processors, the supermarkets who benefit the most. So what can you do to make sure that that the farmer gets a fair deal.
Fair Trade is a growing, international movement which ensures that producers in poor countries get a fair deal. This means a fair price for their goods (one that covers the cost of production and guarantees a living income), long-term contracts which provide real security; and for many, support to gain the knowledge and skills that they need to develop their businesses and increase sales. You as an individual can buy Fair Trade products from both places like Oxfam and the major supermarkets. Products include tea, coffee, fruit, chocolate and snacks and biscuits. You can make sure that a product is fair trade by checking for the Fairtrade Mark on the packaging.
But paying the farmers fairly is only half the problem - the rich world has been dumping subsidised products like cotton, milk and sugar made from sugar beet on third world countries which are being sold at low prices that local farmers can't compete with.
Plus the richer nations have put up trade barriers that make it difficult for third wold countries to export their products to them.For example, if you think which nation do you associate with chocolate most people would say either Switzerland or Belgium - but the cocoa isn't grown there, that happens in countries like Ghana. But because of trade tarriffs and the cost of exporting countries like Ghana find themselves unable to export the finished processed chocolate only the cocoa beans - a much less profitable enterprise. If you want to find out more about the trade issues check out the Make Trade Fair website.
The politicians have been arguing for years over sorting out the issues of trade barriers and one of the ways that you could encourage to resolve the issues in the fairest possible way is to use your power as a consumer and a voter and use the democratic means available to you. You can join a number of campaigns and petitions which are trying to influence the decisions taken
Political persuasion
Email Tony Blair and ask him to Make Poverty History
Put pressure on politicians around the world including George Bush and Peter Mandelson, EU Commissioner for Trade
Sign the petition to Make Trade Fair
Charity
You can also put your money where your mouth is and give to charities that are directly helping the poor. Aid can be at its most effective in the health arena having a concrete and positive effect. This is especially true in Africa where nearly half of all child deaths result from preventable diseases like pneumonia, malaria, diarrhooea and measles all of which can be prevented at a reasonably low cost. As well as the obvious charities like Oxfam, Save the Children and Cafod there are a number of smaller and specialist charities that do good work.
Make Every Mother and Child Count was set up by the World Health Organisation aims to cut maternal deaths by up to 75% - To donate go to www.who.int/donate/en/
Sight Savers - trains local surgeons to treat and prevent blindness generally caused by trachoma, cataracts and river blindness - www.sightsavers.org.uk
Water Aid - aims to provide clean safe drinking water and sanitation for the world's poorest - one way of preventing disease. www.wateraid.org.uk
Tree Aid - has planted more than 6 million trees across Africa since 1987 and the trees planted help provide wood for homes, food, medicine and fuel and can also provide an income from their products. www.treeaid.org.uk
Farm Africa it help poor communities farm their land and asks for donations to cover the cost of a goat or farmers hand tools www.farmafrica.org.uk
Send a Cow - This Christian charity gives livestock training and support to help provide a sustainable future for communities. www.sendacow.org.uk
Sponsor a child - you can sponsor a child and your monthly
gifts will help local people plan and complete projects such as wells, health
centres, irrigation schemes and schools. And you'll be able to see exactly what
your support has achieved through regular updates from overseas. - www.actionaid.org.uk
Tax - Don't forget to use Gift Aid which will increase the value of your donation without it costing you extra. The government will give tax relief on donations so that the charity should receive £1.28 for every pound you donate. Find out more about charitable giving
Give your time
If you don't have deep pockets or prefer to do something more practical you can volunteer your time.
If you have lots of time you could work overseas and pass your expertise on to local people. The best know charity in this area is Voluntary Service Overseas. www.vso.org.uk Placements are generally for a minimum of two years.
If you don't have that sort of time or commitments make it impossible you could spend a few hours working in your local Oxfam shop or by spending time raising money for the charity of your choice by doing anything from sponsored events to jumble sales. And remember Comic Relief raises large sums of money to help Africa.
One final way of helping with your time is to look after sick children from the third world when they come for hospital treatment in the UK with the charity Chain of Hope www.chainofhope.org.
