Flood preparation, farming, and football - July roundup

New toolkit aims to help homeowners prepare for flooding

Flood Mary has launched a new guide to help homeowners get prepared to reduce the impact of flooding on their properties. According to the Environment Agency, 5.9 million people live in homes that are at risk of flooding, and the risk is getting higher due to the climate crisis.

The Householders Guide to Property Resilience includes a wealth of information including how you can learn about flood risk, how to protect your home, and case studies.

Halve your diet's carbon footprint by eating less meat

A new study by the University of Oxford has pinpointed the difference in impact of high- and low-meat diets on carbon footprints. The study indicates that those who have high-meat diets could nearly halve their diet's daily carbon emissions by reducing how much meat they eat from 100g to 50g or less.

Those with a vegan diet had the lowest carbon footprint at 2.47kg per day compared to 10.24kg of a high-meat diet.

The study also analysed other impacts that different diets had on environmental measures such as land use, water use, pollution, and loss of biodiversity. A high-meat diet had the worst impact in all areas explored.

Reducing the amount of meat in your diet has never been easier. The V Spot in Sherwood has created a handy website that brings together the vegan spots in Nottingham and beyond. 

Thousands of courses offered to ready workforce for net zero

To reach net zero, millions of homes across the country will need to have their energy efficiency improved and have traditional gas boilers replaced with low carbon alternatives. This means that the workforce will need to be upskilled to install measures including insulation and heat pumps.

The UK Government's Department for Energy Security and Net Zero is working with the Midlands Net Zero Hub to help training providers to offer subsidised training courses through the Home Decarbonisation Skills Training Competition and the Heat Training Grant. These schemes will see more than 18,000 courses delivered.

Find out more about the Skills Training schemes managed by the Midlands Net Zero Hub.

Better farming techniques could help store carbon emissions

Farming techniques that improve long-term fertility and crop yields can also help to store carbon in soil, new research suggests. The data suggests that these better techniques could absorb around 31 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide per year. However, more sustainable farming practices are often ignored in favour of intensive techniques using large amounts of artificial fertiliser. The research suggests that while farmers may face short-term costs while changing farming methods, they would see a benefit after just two to three years.

While reducing carbon emissions being produced is the most effective way to tackle the climate crisis, interest in removing carbon from the atmosphere is growing as we get closer to the critical 1.5C of warming.

Football teams encouraged to travel by coach or train

The European football association UEFA wants Euro 2024 to be the most sustainable European Championship ever. To achieve this, they have encouraged teams to travel to group-stage matched by coach or train rather than flying to reduce their carbon impact. Fans will also be offered discounted long-distance train tickets and free access to local public transport.

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