Knowledge hub

The data centres being planned and built across the country will require large amounts of electricity, adding significantly to our carbon emissions. Due to their high levels of electricity use, these data centres will be responsible for a significant increase in carbon emissions, as they are seeking to connect to the UK’s electricity grid – which is far from being fully decarbonised. In doing so, they will create significant additional demand which is likely to drive up prices, and will make it much more difficult for the UK to reduce carbon emissions from its electricity sector. We have been unable to find any more detailed estimate of the impact that the growing electricity demand from planned data centres will have on the UK’s carbon emissions. We have therefore sought to provide some indicators based on the information which is publicly available. However, as we will explain, this information is in many places flawed, incomplete or inconsistent – as well as being entirely sourced from the data centre developers themselves, which leads to concerns over bias.

In partnership with CLASP, Global Action Plan have developed a policy pathway for transitioning from gas to electric cooking in the UK and have conducted a social housing cooking retrofit pilot project to demonstrate the feasibility of these policies.

In our new report, “Make it accessible and interesting”, we share the thoughts, views and perspectives of 55 sixth form students surveyed at the 2024 Our Earth Our Future conferences. While a sample of 55 is not likely representative of all sixth formers, powerful themes emerged. The insights we’ve gathered are highly instructive for sustainability educators and policymakers.

This briefing - Digital landscape of climate mis- and disinformation in the UK- provides an overview of key false and misleading narratives relating to climate science, solutions and policy, as relevant to the UK on X (formerly Twitter), Facebook and the encrypted messaging app Telegram. It aims to unpack how such ‘anti-climate’ content is served to UK audiences by platforms’ curation and amplification systems, and how this might shape public discussion and perception of key climate policies. The briefing is jointly authored by ISD, Climate Action Against Disinformation, and Global Action Plan.

This document presents findings from a study conducted by the Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD) into climate-related content recommended by YouTube’s algorithms to UK-based audiences. The aim was to explore what type of content is recommended to social media users with an interest in climate, who do not engage in outright climate denial or mis-/disinformation, and how recommended content can influence exposure to anti-climate narratives.

When you zoom out a bit from the day to day drama of the education system, it's possible to see that it is on the cusp of a change - a new era is coming. This is a profound moment, and while times are tough, 'the darkest hour is just before the dawn.' After much research and many conversations with colleagues inside and outside of Global Action Plan, we've written a collection of four essays that look at what the new era of education needs to be if it is to meaningful prepare young people for the age of profound climate and ecological change we are now in; and what the environmental movement might do in this time between education worlds.

Our report with the Climate Action Against Disinformation coalition on how AI threatens action on climate change.

Artificial intelligence is trumpeted by many as a potential solution to climate breakdown but too little attention is being paid to two major risks concerning the rapid development of generative AI tools such as ChatGPT: the extent to which Gen AI pours rocket fuel on online misinformation and the enormous energy demands of this rapidly expanding tech.

This report on home wood burning for heating investigates the cost implications of the use of woodburning stoves, in a contemporary UK residential setting. The report compares a range of wood burner options against different heating systems, behavioural and occupancy assumptions. This study aimed to investigate the relative cost of wood burners vs alternatives in the context of the current and future energy prices. We found little evidence that wood burners are a cheaper option, and in most cases are likely to be more expensive than the alternatives, especially when factoring in health and environmental costs.

This Clean Air Day, we encouraged people to clean up the air so we can enjoy healthier, happier lives.

Find out more about everything that happened on the day in our Clean Air Day 2023 celebration report.

With our partners Opinium, we commissioned the first UK wide Clean Air Public Insight Tracker (CAPIT). Since 2018, CAPIT has been providing information on public awareness and attitudes to air quality and how the public are modifying their behaviour to protect themselves. CAPIT is a regular quarterly source of insight which communicators can rely on.

Global Action Plan has released a new report, written by barrister and digital rights expert Susie Alegre, outlining how the core business model of companies like Meta, Twitter, Google and TikTok is one of the biggest obstacles to climate action. In Big Tech's dirty secret we look into how although many in the climate movement will be aware of the enormous energy use and emissions associated with the industry, Big Tech’s growing energy use is just the tip of the iceberg. Big Tech’s business model is entirely reliant on advertising. 97% of Meta’s income comes from ad revenue, so it’s hardly surprising that everything about the platform is geared towards maximising people’s exposure to ads.

Clean Air Day 2022 felt, once again, like the galvanising, positive day of action it sets out to be. After two years of COVID-19  restrictions and resultant online activities, it was heart-warming to see face-to-face events resuming, including an air pollution theatre performance, a clean air festival and market, school assemblies, public information events in hospitals and GP surgeries, workplace cyclist breakfasts and Parliamentary events - all sharing information about air pollution and encouraging people to act to protect their health. The buzz didn’t stop there, with 985 pieces of media coverage through broadcast and news article mentions as well as #CleanAirDay trending throughout the day.

Talking about climate change can be difficult. We've put together some tips to think about what you should and shouldn't do when you're talking to people about climate change.

The world is facing a severe yet unusual economic crisis. A combination of inflation and probably stagnant growth (known as stagflation) or even recession means that the potential policy solutions are not straightforward. And this is in the midst of an ecological crisis – not just climate change, but also biodiversity loss and the overuse of natural resources.

Our Demanding Change by Changing Demand series explores whether we can reshape the nature of economic demand to benefit people and planet by asking: 'demand for what?

9 out of 10 young people care about the climate crisis but only a third are talking about it with their friends, according to Virgin Media O2‘s research in partnership with Global Action Plan.

There are major barriers preventing young people from speaking up about their climate concern, including a lack of diverse or relatable role models; a misconception that their peers don‘t care as much as they do; and conversations about climate change feeling overwhelming. The tips and tactics in this guide are designed to help the media engage young people with the climate conversation.

The Dirt Is Good Schools Programme inspires and enables young people across the world to take action on the causes they care about. We've dug into five examples of projects created by changemakers in the UK.

Remain focussed, stay positive, keep imagining a more sustainable, healthier, equitable world. At GAP that’s exactly what we’re doing. Through Flickers of the Future, we are harnessing the Solarpunk style of some very talented young artists to picture what the future could look like, with green technologies, shared spaces, less pollution. Better for our planet, better for our communities, better for us. To make sure this incredible work is seen far and wide we welcome anyone and everyone to share our Flickers art collection, to imagine, to inspire, to motivate. Enjoy!

As Clean Air Day - the UK's largest air pollution campaign - celebrates it's fifth year, our insights and celebration report looks at five reasons why Clean Air Day matters.

We all care about our planet 🌍. But we’re not talking enough about it. ​89% of young people report feeling concerned about the climate crisis but only a third are regularly talking about it with their friends. We’ve teamed up with Virgin Media O2 and young people from across the UK to spark conversations on the climate crisis and how we can all be part of the solution: how to supercharge the climate conversation.

It takes 21 days to make cycling a habit

The Global Action Plan Youth Panel created a 21 day cycling challenge along with a complete guide to getting started with cycling.

According to the World Health Organization, every day around 93% of the world’s children under the age of 15 years breathe air that is so polluted it puts their health and development at serious risk. The Child's right to clean air White Paper, created as part of the Freedom to Breathe project, is a rallying cry for a child’s right to clean air.

Despite successful advances since the middle of the 20th century to improve many of the worst impacts of air pollution, exceedingly high levels of harmful air pollutants are still being released into our atmosphere today. Government is not the only actor responsible for taking action on air pollution: as key contributors to the problem, companies have a responsibility to ensure their business operations and activities are not adversely harming the environment and contributing to air pollution, either directly or indirectly. In Air Pollution: the next business challenge, we look at the challenges, impacts and opportunities for businesses in the fight for cleaner air.

Local authorities, as community guardians and leaders are exceptionally well placed to tackle air pollution. This paper sets out the top five methods for local authorities to combat air pollution in a fast and fair way.

In May 2021, we published I-Spy: the billion-dollar business of surveillance advertising to kids, based on new research by the New Economics Foundation. This provided a robust policy platform for our campaign. We have exposed Meta’s duplicity which restricts advertisers’ ability to target teens while quietly using their internal algorithms to ‘optimise’ kids’ ads. We have also uncovered dangerous ‘trap ads’ on YouTube that lure pre-schoolers to violent video games.

The ways we have been living have led to major threats to our natural world and the younger generation will experience the most serious consequences of these actions. These rapid changes are taking a toll on young people’s mental well-being.

Our research and white papers commissioned by the Persil Dirt Is Good Project explored young people’ s values and how they perceive the values of others and how we can be united in compassion. The study found that almost all the young people surveyed said that caring for nature and other people is important to them but they don’t think others share their compassionate values. Fears about not fitting in and being labelled with unhelpful stereotypes prevent them from expressing their true values to their peers.

The world around us is changing faster than ever. The ways we have been living have led to major threats to our natural world upon which we depend. Alongside the ecological crisis we are also living through rising social division and inequality which is taking its toll on our wellbeing. We have it within our power to create a fairer, kinder society and to repair and restore our natural world. We must come together to take more action, or it is the young generation who will experience the most serious consequences of inaction. The question is – how? Read the white paper.

It was wonderful to see the clean air movement come together for Clean Air Day 2020 on the postponed date of 8 October. For clean air has never been more important. And for many city dwellers 2020 gave us a taste of what cleaner air and quieter streets feels like. During the Spring 2020 Covid-19 lockdown, as nitrogen dioxide levels across the country improved on average by 20-30% and halved in some cities, individuals and communities were literally waking up and smelling the difference.

The Mobilising Health Professionals Project is a demonstrator project to establish how information on air pollution can be integrated into the patient pathway

Air pollution is a health crisis and economic burden. Over 12 million residents in the UK are living with health issues that can be exacerbated by air pollution, and we lose 3 million working days a year because the UK’s air pollution exceeds the World Health Organisation’s recommend limits. Employers in the manufacturing sector face the challenge of protecting the health of three million workers while activity inside their factories generates air pollutants. Airborne hazards are caused by stone work, cement, spray painting, flour and grain, animal feed, welding and metal work to name a few examples. Our white paper looks at why manufacturers should take a look at the benefits of tackling air pollution in their sites, as the combined savings on production costs and employee health benefits can make a compelling case to improve air quality beyond the regulated limits

Childhood exposure to particulate matter (PM), NO x , O3 and black carbon (BC) can impair lung development, cause respiratory inflammation (Lin et al., 2011) and there is evidence to suggest that attainment can also be compromised. There are many sources of PM both outside and within schools, very often outside the control of the school and therefore active measures that can reduce a child’s exposure in the school setting is desirable.

In this study the Manchester Urban Observatory working with the University of Manchester collaborated with Global Action Plan and the Phillips Foundation to assess the effectiveness of Phillips Air Purifier, Series 3000i in a school setting.

One in three internet users world-wide are children. In the UK, 43% of 11-year-olds who go online say they have a social media profile. Yet virtually none of the services popular with children are ad-free.

In this position paper we look into the problem and the solutions to this problem.

There are significant impacts from air pollution on physical health, both in children and in adults. Of note a number of the health effects in adults are actually the end result of exposure at a young age. Therefore, reducing air pollution exposure for children would have a likely improvement in the health of those individuals as adults.

This review looks at the physical health effects on children and reviews the current literature surrounding the possible improvements that can be made through reductions in air pollution exposure through interventions.

The pollinator paths toolkit can be used for personal learning, running workshops with your community group or to run pollinator-friendly activities with your friends and family.

As we recover from the COVID-19 crisis and create a new normal, now is the moment to build back cleaner air. As our build back clean air report shows, the opportunity to act on air pollution has never been greater, or more important.

There are numerous benefits to be had by organisations incorporating Clean Air into business recovery plans. With COVID-19 forcing a national conversation about the importance of air quality to health indicators and defence against respiratory illnesses, it is vital that businesses help customers and employees get our economy up and running in a way that positively impacts sustainability and health. Our Clean Air Recovery essentials  give you a starting point for improving air for your business. 

This guide provides information to help your business identify sources of air pollution. It also suggests ways that a company can use its influence in the marketplace, clean up its operations, and shift behaviours among its workforce in order to reduce pollution.

Clean Air Day exists because people in communities all over the UK are not prepared to accept air pollution as an inevitable fact of life. This is a day when people stand up, speak up and get out there to do something about it. Find out what happened around the country in our Clean Air Day 2019 celebration report.

This Value to Transform Our World paper lays out the theoretical framework that underpins Global Action Plan's work to enable teachers to support young people to be more resilient to an increasingly toxic culture of looks, likes, and shopping, by embedding the values of responsible citizenship and environmental stewardship.

Our highly consumerist society teaches us that owning more equates to individual success and at Global Action Plan, we just don't buy it. Advertising convinces young people that buying more will provide them with a sense of satisfaction. But relentless purchasing only creates short highs and fails to address our underlying need for a sense of self-worth. It is also fuelling the unsustainable use of our planet's resources. Find resources here for parents and young people to tackle consumerism.

We asked some secondary school students to share their personal experiences of social media advertising. Check out what they had to say in our 'Beyond Consumerism' films.

Our climate chaos response toolkit is a free, practical resource to provide simple tools to support school leadership teams and governors to develop or build on their school's positive response to today's climate chaos.

The Clean Air Hospital Framework is a free resource being used by hospitals across the UK to clean up their air. It is a self-assessment tool designed to improve air quality across the hospital site, and in the local community. The framework is focused on seven key areas to tackle air pollution: travel, procurement & supply chain, construction, energy, local air quality, communication & training and hospital outreach & leadership.

Goals for Good is aimed at supporting young people to set and achieve goals that are good for their own wellbeing, and also good for other people and the planet. The workplace toolkit includes a leader's guide, session plans and presentations.

Goals for Good is aimed at supporting young people to set and achieve goals that are good for their own wellbeing, and also good for other people and the planet. The course has been designed by Global Action Plan, in collaboration with academic experts from the fields of wellbeing, values, motivation and sustainability. The youth and schools leader's guide can be found here.

Clean Air Day is about helping communities beat one of the most pressing public health issues of our time - air pollution. This celebration report celebrates the national progress, and to inspire ever more progress by sharing your imaginative, powerful and local national campaigns.

Young people like corporate responsibility and prefer to buy from and work for brands with good environmental and social records, according to a study from Global Action Plan. Global Action Plan’s Youth Panel met with 50 businesses to establish the ground rules for collaboration. The findings were then turned into a “Pre-nup”, a series of commitments which businesses can use to audit their readiness to engage with younger people.

On June 15th 2017, the UK’s first ever National Clean Air Day helped millions of people respond to air pollution through over 200 events and 550 press, radio and TV features. A real buzz on social media saw 28,000 tweets and #NationalCleanAirDay trended at number 1 on Twitter for 5 hours – beating BBC Music Day, British Beer Day and Love Island. That represents a clear groundswell of public interest in tackling air pollution. 

National Clean Air Day was a huge collaborative effort between one hundred supporter organisations and many thousands of  individuals up and down the country. Their passion for helping their neighbours, families and colleagues to act on air pollution led them to organise press interviews, walking buses, debates, street parties, cycle rides and much more, You can read all about these amazing activities and what we’ve learned about how best to inspire action on air pollution in this report. 

There are two dates that sum up our flawed relationship with 'stuff'. The first is Earth Overshoot Day, the second is Black Friday. This begs the question – is all this consumption of the earth’s resources smart and purposeful, and does it actually make us happy? That’s the starting point at which we asked researcher Joe Lewis to investigate. What he uncovered in Our Relationship with Stuff - positive routes to less excess is staggering, thought-provoking, and hopeful. He discovered that activities that consume nothing often make us happier. Maybe pursuing well-being can reduce our damage of the environment. 

Air pollution is a critical issue for the health sector. Each year in the UK over 40,000 people die due to poor air quality. More than 9,500 of those premature deaths occur in London. These deaths are caused by long-term exposure to airborne pollution with local particulate matter attributing between 6.3-8.3% towards total premature mortality in London boroughs alone. For Barts Health NHS Trust this means between 142,500 and 200,000 members of its community are negatively impacted.

Determined to change this landscape, Barts Health NHS Trust teamed up with the Greater London Authority (GLA), its four London boroughs and behavioural change charity, Global Action Plan, to create a cross-sector collaboration to take practical action for the benefit of its patients and local communities. You can read about this project here.

In the first initiative of its kind, Global Action Plan, the environment charity that works with young people, business and communities, invited its young Climate Squad volunteers to describe their vision for a sustainable Britain in 2020. Global Action Plan then asked YouGov to question a further 1,053 16-24 year olds from all walks of society for their views on these ideas. The full Greenprint to 2020 can be read here.

Environmental charity, Global Action Plan, has launched a free Green ICT handbook for businesses to use. The handbook is packed full of case studies, facts and solutions that can save your business valuable resources and money. The people behind the handbook are Global Action Plan, Logicalis and the Environmental IT Leadership Team (EILT) whose aim is to help businesses understand how to reduce the energy and waste generated through their IT equipment.