MHP has a long standing commitment to improving our environmental performance, so we followed the Copenhagen Climate Change Summit at the end of last year with particular interest. We hoped the talks would galvanise action on climate change globally, nationally and locally, providing a clear mandate for us as an organisation on how our staff, customers and partners can continue to support this crucial agenda.

The final Copenhagen Accord, written by just five countries and hurriedly reviewed by the other 187, falls far short of what was hoped would be achieved. With no legal obligations, no deadlines for action and no timescale for making the Accord law, many view the result of the talks as a failure that stands to jeopardise the lives of millions across the world.

As of the end of January, less than 30 per cent of the United Nations’ member states had signed up to the Accord. Pledges for emissions reductions fall far short of what is needed to limit global warming to 2 degrees Celsius – beyond which, experts claim, we will experience the most severe impacts of a changing climate.

So what does this mean for MHP and our customers? According to the science, climate change means more than just a warmer world: extreme weather events are set to become more severe and more frequent. This will result in more of the flooding and storms we’ve seen over recent years. More prolonged drought and water shortages too. Hotter summers will expose many of our more vulnerable residents to the health risks of overheating. Climate change is a very real threat to MHP, our homes and, most importantly, our customers.

Following the failure of the Summit in Copenhagen, it’s more important than ever that MHP takes strong action to tackle climate change. We’ve signed up to the national 10:10 campaign, which commits us to reducing our organisational carbon emissions in 2010 by 10 per cent, and that’s just the start of our ambitions. We continue to work hard to bring energy efficiency improvements to the homes and families who need it most. For us, helping save energy in the home is not just about cutting carbon, but saving customers money on energy bills and tackling fuel poverty.

We’re also learning important lessons from our award winning new developments that can be transferred to projects on our existing homes, such as how to make the best use of new technologies to provide low carbon heat and power, and retrofit our properties so they become low carbon homes of the future.

We’re working to develop our understanding of the ways our customers use their homes, so we can provide useful advice and support, as well as understand the best ways to improve them. We’re working with other housing associations to create alternative products and solutions that will supplement face-to-face advice and will help customers use less energy in the home, and make it easier to pay fuel bills.

In 2010 and beyond, we’re going to be building on our aims to make MHP a leader in sustainability by working together to make the individual changes that add up to big differences. If you want to be a part of the effort to reduce emissions, and take action with us, why not sign up to the 10:10 campaign at www.1010uk.org. To read about some of the inspiring things that MHP and our customers are doing to build a better future why not download our latest sustainability report at www.mhp-online.co.uk/sustainability.

Seb Junemann, Sustainability Officer, Metropolitan Housing Partnership