Delivering on Climate Change Action and Heritage
Climate change is one of the greatest challenges of our time. We must reduce greenhouse gas emissions to limit global warming and avoid the worst impacts. We must also adapt to the current and future impacts as the climate continues to change over the coming decades. The historic environment has a significant role to play. Here you can find out more about our climate change response, advice and guidance for owners and for professionals, along with our research.
On this page:
- Carbon Terminology
- Advice on energy efficiency, retrofit, climate change risks, nature recovery and net zero
- Climate change research
- Our own climate change strategy and carbon reduction plans
- Key external links
Carbon Terminology
We use the word 'carbon' as a shorthand term for carbon dioxide (CO2), which is a greenhouse gas and is the most prominent in causing climate change. The global warming potential of other greenhouse gases - water vapour (H2O), nitrous oxide (N2O), methane (CH4) and ozone (O3) - is often expressed as carbon dioxide equivalent or CO2e. The table below gives definitions for commonly used carbon terms which are referred to in some of our guidance.
| Term | Definition |
| Embodied Carbon | Carbon emitted over the lifecycle of a building, including during construction, maintenance, refurbishment, and demolition. It considers carbon emissions released throughout the supply chain including extraction of materials from the ground, transport, refining, processing, assembly, and end of life. |
| Operational Carbon | Carbon associated with the in-use operation of a building. This usually includes carbon emissions associated with heating, hot water, cooling, ventilation, and lighting systems, as well as those associated with cooking, equipment, and lifts (that is both regulated and unregulated energy uses). |
| Whole Life Carbon | Whole life carbon encompasses both the embodied carbon and operational carbon of a building throughout the entirety of its lifecycle. |
