Our planet is facing its greatest environmental challenge in the form of climate change. Caused by a build-up of greenhouse gases in the earth's atmosphere, climate change is predicted to result in increased flooding, drought, extinction of species, the spread of diseases and extreme weather such as hurricanes. Many argue we are already seeing its effects.

The most common greenhouse gas is carbon dioxide (CO₂). This is created when fossil fuels are burned to produce the energy we use to drive our cars, heat our homes, power our computers, manufacture products and so on. Every business contributes to climate change through its own activities and those of its suppliers. We have a strategy to reduce our contribution.

Our focus on combating climate change intensified in 2007 on three fronts: carbon reduction, carbon offsetting and enhanced employee education and engagement. Despite some of the initiatives outlined in this section, we cannot reduce our carbon emissions completely, so we offset our remaining emissions – mainly from buildings and business travel – by funding projects that generate carbon credits. Retrospectively offsetting our 2006 emissions cost us approximately £800,000 in 2007.

Case study

Earthwatch award

As part of our commitment to the climate change agenda, Aviva UK presented an Aviva/Earthwatch international award for climate change research to Dr Chris Stevenson. This £6,000 award will allow Dr Stevenson to continue his work on Easter Island, where he is investigating whether prolonged climate change was the cause of societal demise over 300 years ago. This crucial work could aim to provide a model for Earth’s resistance to climate change.