The new Executive Member for Sustainability at Camden Council, and Deputy Leader of the Camden Labour Group, Angela Mason, has asked Camden Council to organise a Camden Green Summit on Saturday 17th July from 10am to 3.30pm at Parliament Hill School, Highgate Road, NW5 IRL.

The twin aims of the event are:

• to develop an overall vision for the Council’s engagement with the community on green issues
• to think about how Camden as a borough can achieve a 40% reduction in carbon emissions by 2020 (a target we have been asking the council to adopt as part of the Get Serious About CO2 campaign)

If you plan to attend, then please register in advance online or over the phone (020) 7974 7362. Places are limited so early registration is advised.

We’re currently seeking local residents views on sustainability issues. If you could take 5 minutes to tell us what you think about the environment in Camden we’d really appreciate it! The information will be used to help steer our local campaign work.

Thank you!

We joined in with the eco activities at Camden Green Fair, held in Regents Park on Sunday 6 June. Thanks to everyone who came down and helped make our stall such a success!

• We raised £111.54 for Friends of the Earth, by asking for donations for our home-made cakes and jam
• About 50 postcards were signed for the Get Serious about CO2 campaign
• Around 40 surveys were completed by people living in Camden, to help inform our local campaigning

With delicious home-baked cakes on a banana theme (from the fair hands of Natasha, Susan and Jess) and Jim’s jams, we had a nice profile, raised some money for Friends of the Earth and got a lot done as well as having the chance to hang out with the other Camden green groups. It was good to support such a lovely event.

We joined the Campaign Against Climate Change’s Candlelit Procession down Whitehall at midnight on Saturday 15 May, part of the Climate Emergency overnight vigil, to highlight to the new government that climate change should be their priority.

The 300-strong procession started at Trafalgar Square (where ‘Climate SOS’ was written in red candles) and we made our way to the Houses of Parliament by candlelight. Video by You and I films below:

Outside Parliament we stopped to hear speakers from the UK Youth Coalition on Climate Change, the UK Tar Sands Network, and John McDonnell, MP for Hayes and Harlington spoke about the great news that the third runway at Heathrow Airport has been scrapped. We hope that the the new government can follow this up with even bolder action on climate change!

The Hampstead & Kilburn Resilience Hustings was an excellent evening, six prospective parliamentary candidates turned up (although Glenda Jackson didn’t stay) and up to around 200 interested people. We didn’t have time to ask all the questions but have since sent on the unanswered questions to all the candidates. So far we’ve received answers for the Friends of the Earth questions from:

• Tamsin Omond - Independent (view PDF of answers)
• Chris Philp - Conservative (view PDF of answers)

You can read further eco-questions asked by members of the public, and the MP candidates’ answers, on the Camden CAN website.

Following the election we aim to review the answers given by the winning candidate and go back to them where we have concerns. If they didn’t answer, we will send the questions again to re-emphasize their importance to us.

Back in March we presented a deputation to Camden council asking for local parties to support the Get Serious About CO2 campaign in their manifestos, and to commit to a target of at least 40% CO2 emissions reductions in Camden by 2020.

Good news… the local Conservative, Labour and Liberal Democrat parties have adopted the target in their manifestos, and the Greens have gone better, in line with their national target. Here’s the relevant sections from each party’s manifesto:

Camden Conservative Manifesto 2010: “aiming to reduce the borough’s carbon emissions, alongside the Conservative government’s programme, by 40% by 2020.”

Camden Green Party Manifesto 2010: “Leading the way as the greenest borough in London: setting and achieving greenhouse gas reduction targets, in line with our national targets of a 90% cut in GHG emissions by 2030 and 65% cuts by 2020″

Camden Labour Manifesto 2010: “Camden Labour will: Sign up to the Friends of the Earth Get Serious About CO2 campaign to reduce emissions by 40 per cent by 2020″

Camden Liberal Democrats Manifesto 2010: “…we pledge to cut Camden’s carbon footprint by 40% by 2020.”

Have you received a local election leaflet with the Get Serious target on? Do let us know…

We have a letter in this week’s Camden New Journal (22 April) about the Hampstead & Kilburn Hustings: read more here.

We had a great turn out at the Hampstead & Kilburn Hustings last Wednesday 14 April at St Stephen’s Church on Rosslyn Hill - almost 200 people attended, and all six prospective parliamentary candidates for the constituency answered questions on environmental issues.

The event was co-organised with eco groups from across Camden and our stall (pictured, right) attracted interest from candidates, who were given a copy of our Friends of the Earth Election 2010 Manifesto Recommendations (PDF).

Questions were submitted to the candidates from Camden Friends of the Earth, Transition Belsize, Camden Greenpeace, Camden Cyclists, and members of the public were invited to ask questions on the night.

Unfortunately there wasn’t enough time for all questions to be asked, but they have been sent to candidates to answer via email. The candidates (in alphabetical order) are: Bea Campbell (Green), Ed Fordham (Liberal Democrat), Glenda Jackson (Labour), Magnus Nielsen (UKIP), Tamsin Omond (The Commons), Chris Philp (Conservative).

We’ll add a document with all the questions and candidates’ answers from the hustings to this page as soon as we have them! You can also put your questions to the candidates now on the Ask the Climate Question YouTube channel.

Thanks to everyone who participated in the hustings - to Natasha for being our Green Princess! - and to everyone who helped organise and made it into a successful evening! For more photos from the event please see the Transition Belsize photo album.

Susan, Jess, Prashant, Jim, Iris and Michele made a deputation to Camden Council at the full council meeting on March 1 about the Get Serious about CO2 campaign. Due to the closeness of the election the deputation requested that all the parties make a commitment to the ‘Get Serious’ targets in their manifestos. You can read our deputation statement or see a video of our deputation (starts 16 mins in) on the Camden Council website.

The leader of the council, Keith Moffitt, (who previously had a 20-year career with British Coal!) responded supportively to the deputation. We are now following up with the individual parties to keep the process going.