What we are doing about it

The English national park authorities are committed to doing their bit to tackle climate change. Protecting the special qualities of the national parks from the effects of climate change and helping them to adapt (where possible) is a central element of fulfilling our statutory purposes, as is helping others to understand how they can help too.

Our collective aim is to move towards a situation where we have national parks that are ‘carbon neutral’ (where the amount of greenhouse gas emissions generated in the national park each year is matched or exceeded by the amount of carbon being taken out of the atmosphere).

The English national park authorities believe that the management of our national parks has a major contribution to make in mitigating the effects of climate change and adapting to the inevitable changes ahead. This will be crucial to the future of national parks themselves, but it is equally important nationally, and indeed globally. National parks are the nation’s breathing spaces and we need to keep them healthy.

There are four key areas where national park authorities and their partners have a major contribution to make in mitigating and adapting to climate change in national parks.

These are:

• a sustainable approach to land management

• the development of rural low carbon communities

• adaptation to climate change on a landscape scale

• working with the public on the issues and solutions around climate change