Climate campaigner Jonathon Porritt joins experts from Carbon Balanced Print and Paper programme and World Land Trust in annual update
Carbon Balanced Paper (CBP) held its 2024 Partner’s Meeting on March 20, which provided a fascinating insight into the latest work of the programme alongside that of its conservation partner World Land Trust (WLT). Joining speakers from the two organisations was Jonathon Porritt, the highly respected sustainability campaigner, adviser and writer, who delivered an alarming insight into the scale of the climate emergency and how the print and paper industry can play its part in reducing the world’s carbon emissions.
“2023 was without a doubt the worst year ever in terms of manifestations of the climate crisis,” Porritt stated. “During 2023 and in the first two months of 2024, we’ve seen climate records being broken on an almost daily basis. It’s astonishing to try and keep track of what is actually going on out there.”
As an “unapologetic lover of paper”, Porritt understands the print industry and the importance of forests in combatting climate change, but remains frustrated at the public’s lack of awareness of the paper industry and its sustainable practices. However, this frustration is minimal compared to his frustration at politicians and policy makers. “They’ve never really understood the significance of the climate phenomenon,” he said. “They’ve always seen it as ‘an environmental issue’. That’s insane. Climate change is about the future of our economy and the future of humankind.”
Following a detailed explanation of the long-term effects of climate change, Porritt finished with a plea to the paper and print industry to continue its sustainable journey to the point where it cuts out all use of fossil fuels. “The real test is how soon the paper industry can get rid of every last burn of gas that’s being used today.”
Following Jonathon Porritt, Paul Opie, Partnership Director of CarbonCO, brought CBP’s print, paper and brand partners up to date with the latest facts and figures about the work of the organisation. Since the March 2023 CBP Partners Meeting, the programme has balanced a further 90,000 tonnes of carbon and increased the number of certified carbon balanced printers from 55 to 76.
“The carbon balanced print and paper programme is also now used by more than 5,000 brands,” he continued, “and we have added 21 new printers around the UK. During the course of 2023, another 86,000 tonnes of paper have been balanced, which is the equivalent of 3,500 lorry loads.”
The work of WLT, the conservation partner of the carbon balanced print and paper programme, was explained by Emma Douglas, Director of Development for World Land Trust, and Richard Cuthbert, Director of Conservation for the same organisation.
World Land Trust works across the globe to protect some of the world’s most threatened habitats, working in partnership with local conservation groups. With 60 projects in 27 countries, WLT is currently protecting over 71,000 hectares of land, from Khe Nouc Trong in Vietnam to Nahgaritza in Ecuador. This brings the total amount of land saved since the charity’s foundation over 30 years ago to over one million hectares – that’s equivalent to the size of Jamaica.
“The result of protecting all this land is the preservation of an enormous array of biodiversity,” said Douglas. “Over 11,000 animal and plant species have been recorded in our reserves, but nearly 600 of those are threatened according to the IUCN criteria. To put that into perspective, the area we protect equates to just 0.016% of the land on our planet. So you can really see the value and importance of increasing support of our projects to protect biodiversity.”
