Our Climate Policy

Anthropogenic global warming

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) position statement of January 2001 reads:

An increasing body of observations gives a collective picture of a warming world and other changes in the climate system... There is new and stronger evidence that most of the warming observed over the last 50 years is attributable to human activities.
This statement is the scientific consensus position. It is the position of the overwhelming majority of scientists in the relevant fields (97-98 percent of climate climate researchers actively publishing in the field), and no scientific body of any national or international standing maintains a dissenting opinion.

Playing Fair is serious about AGW

Playing Fair is committed to taking a continual-improvement approach to the way that we run our business. We will actively seek to identify our major sources of environmental harm and find ways to eliminate, reduce, and offset them.

Table 1: Carbon emissions from import and delivery and carbon offsets purchased by Playing Fair
Start Date End Date Type Distance Weight Emission factor Emissions Emissions Balance
(km) (ton) (gCO2/ton.km) (gCO2) (tonCO2) (tonCO2)
21-Aug-2010 23-Jul-2011 Postage to customers 97640 0.0005 62 3027 0.00 0.00
21-Aug-2010 23-Jul-2011 Imports from SusuMama 66376 0.02 602 799167 0.80 0.80
21-Aug-2010 23-Jul-2011 Imports from HOPE 16594 0.03 602 299688 0.30 1.10
5-Aug-2011 Carbon offset - - - - −1.00 0.10

Playing fair is taking the following concrete steps to reduce and offset its greenhouse emissions:

  1. The CO2-e emission for your delivery's distance, weight and transport mode is calculated and carbon offsets for your delivery's emission are purchased on your behalf (see Table 1 above).
  2. The CO2-e emission for each of our imports are also calculated and carbon offsets are purchased for them (see Table 1 above)
  3. The home from which this business is run:
    1. uses AGL's Green Choice, with 100% GreenPower. This means that AGL sources 100% of the household's electricity consumption from renewable energy sources that are approved under the National GreenPower Accreditation Program.
    2. has fluorescent energy-saving bulbs installed throughout.
  4. All deliveries are walked or biked to the post-office.

This figure, based on Meehl et al. (2004), shows the ability of a global climate model to reconstruct the historical temperature record, and the degree to which the associated temperature changes can be attributed to various forcing factors. The lower coloured lines show the model outputs when each forcing factor is used alone: GHGs, solar variability, ozone changes, anthropogenic sulfates, and volcanic emissions. The brown line shows the model reconstruction when all forcing factors are included.

It is apparent from the figure that, while natural forcings such as solar variability and volcanoes can and do influence temperature, these natural processes alone cannot account for the recent warming. It is only when the anthropogenic effect - and greenhouse gases in particular - are included, that the recent warming is explained.

Meehl, G.A., W.M. Washington, C.A. Ammann, J.M. Arblaster, T.M.L. Wigleym and C. Tebaldi (2004). "Combinations of Natural and Anthropogenic Forcings in Twentieth-Century Climate". Journal of Climate 17: 3721-3727.