Stay onside with climate change

Reading Council have teamed up with Reading Buses, Ed Hawkins Professor of Climate Science at the University of Reading, and Reading Football Club at the official team squad photo to kick-off the council’s climate change awareness month in November.

Reading Football Club incorporated the climate stripes on the sleeves on the home shirt this season to help visually demonstrate to Royals supporters how global temperatures have risen over many decades. University of Reading’s Professor Ed Hawkins – inventor of the climate stripes – joined the council’s climate month launch at Bearwood Park Training Ground where the backdrop for the official team photo was Reading Buses’ climate stripes gas-powered bus.

Reading’s now world-famous climate stripes are a visual representation of how temperature has changed over many years, with each stripe representing the (average) temperature over a year. The stripes turn from mainly blue to mainly red in more recent years, illustrating the rise in average temperatures.

Almost four years ago, in February 2019, Reading Borough Council declared a Climate Emergency on behalf of the community of Reading. The Climate Emergency is everybody’s responsibility, and no one organisation can deliver a net-zero carbon Reading in isolation.

Starting on Monday 7 November the council will work to educate, engage and inspire residents, businesses and organisations to make positive changes and reduce their carbon footprint.

The four-week campaign will focus on:

• Young people: decarbonisation in local schools and the Schools Climate Conference to be hosted in the Council Chamber on 11 November;
• Action being taken already: through the Reading Climate Emergency Strategy annual report, and the council’s Carbon Plan;
• Inspiring local communities: to be greener and take action on plastics;
• Raising awareness: of greener leisure facilities, transport options and waste services for Reading;
• Promoting low-cost and no-cost energy efficiency measures: and how residents can access funding and reduce energy bills.

Like many other places, Reading experienced its hottest day on record this summer on 19 July 2022 when temperatures hit 37.6 oC. This will not be a one-off. The climate stripes illustrate the warming temperature in Reading over many years which, if it continues, will create enormous challenges in terms of the infrastructure we take for granted and rely on.

There remains a huge amount to be done to achieve net zero for the Borough something the council cannot achieve on its own.

Watch the video from the Reading FC official first team squad photo at Bearwood Park Training Ground kicking-off the council’s climate change month