Take the opportunity to visit CAT with Camden Friends of the Earth!

With over 7 acres of hands-on displays and gardens and with over 35 years of experience in sustainability practice, the Centre for Alternative Technology (CAT) inspires thousands of visitors every year. Based in beautiful Mid Wales, the Centre overlooks the Snowdonia National Park, renowned for its stunning scenery and outdoor activities.

We will be visiting from Friday 10th June to Monday 13th June 2011
£150, including food, accommodation and train travel from London.

Interested? Please join our Facebook group for further details or contact Jess Gold: projectearthrock@googlemail.com.

Update: Please see our photos from the day of action on the Friends of the Earth Flickr group!

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Please join us for a photo opportunity, to ask David Cameron to talk half as much rubbish!

Where: Camden Lock
When: 3pm, Saturday 19 March

Camden Friends of the Earth is urging Prime Minister David Cameron to cut rubbish, boost reuse and recycling, and help Camden cut black bag waste in half by 2020. The Government’s review of English waste policy is drawing to a close with ministers planning to publish goals for the 2014-2020 period in May. Friends of the Earth’s “Talking half as much rubbish” campaign is calling for a nationwide goal halving rubbish and boosting recycling and re-use.

We’re holding a Day of Action on Waste & Recycling on Saturday 19 March with a photo opportunity to underline the campaign asking for more action on recycling, reuse and waste prevention. It will feature a larger than life David Cameron sawing in half a dustbin bearing the slogan “It’s time Mr Cameron talked half as much rubbish.”

Less than 30% of Camden’s rubbish is re-used, recycled or composted. Camden has some great facilities to help us cut down on waste such as the new food waste collection - but it’s crazy that in other parts of London this isn’t the case.

We think David Cameron should do his bit by halving the rubbish we have to throw away. We’re therefore calling for more support for local authorities to recycle and re-use more of our household waste, and for more products to be designed to be easy to re-use and recycle, to reduce Camden’s rubbish mountain and cut down on waste that blights our streets.

Please contact us if you’d like to join us on Saturday!

Camden’s energy future - Have your say. The UK government’s upcoming Energy Bill will impact how your energy is produced, how you heat your home and how the UK meets its’ international obligations on climate change.

Join us for a public discussion on issues around the energy bill including climate, energy and international development on a local, national and global scale. Guest speakers:

- Frank Dobson, MP for Holborn & St Pancras
- Angela Mason, Deputy Leader of Camden Council
- Kirsty Wright, Senior Climate Justice Campaigner, World Development Movement
- Mervyn Kohler, Fuel Poverty Advisory Group and Special Adviser to Age UK
- Louise Hutchins, Energy Campaigner Greenpeace

Put your questions to our speakers in the question and answer session. This is your opportunity to have your say!

Date: Thursday 31st March, 7pm
Location: Camden Town Hall, Judd St, WC1H 9JE

View and download the event poster - feel free to forward it to friends! You can also sign up to our facebook page for the event.

Event organised by Camden Friends of the Earth, Camden Greenpeace, North London World Development Movement and Camden Cyclists and supported by Stop Climate Chaos Coalition.

Update: Read a report from Transition groups on our deputation. Following the deputation Camden council have now signed up to support Friends of the Earth’s call for national legislation on Local Carbon Budgets.

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On Monday 28 February Camden Friends of the Earth, along with other green groups in Camden will be petitioning the council for more action on sustainability issues. We’ll be giving a deputation to the full council meeting at Camden Town Hall on Judd St, from 7pm. Please do come along if you’d like to (you’ll need to be there by 6.30pm).

Our deputation reads as follows:

We – CamdenCAN, Camden Cycling Campaign, Camden Friends of the Earth, Gaia Foundation, Jewish Community Centre, Transition Belsize, Transition Bloomsbury and Transition Primrose Hill:

• Are delighted that Camden has signed up to the Friends of the Earth “Get Serious” campaign to reduced the borough’s emissions by 40% by 2020, but believe that the government’s figures for decarbonisation of the grid, and Camden Council’s adoption of them, are unrealistic, so we would therefore urge the council to publish a Plan B scenario which does not use such optimistic figures for decarbonisation of the grid;
• Urge Camden Council to take part in the Green Deal if allowed as we believe that local authorities are far better placed to be able to provide loans for energy efficiency measures to householders in their local areas than private companies;
• Would like to see Camden Council back the creation of a Peak Oil Report for Camden as Bristol and many North American cities have done;
• Support the Green Action for Change but we think it is not relevant enough to the general public, and specifically we urge the council to replace the Carbon and Air Quality sections by one on Pollution, change the Waste section for a Reuse and Recycling section, add an Energy Saving section, and to make Food a main pillar of the strategy as we believe that food, in all its manifestations, is the easiest way to get residents thinking about sustainability;
• Urge Camden Council to adopt a blanket 20 mph limit through the borough on non-TFL roads to encourage more people to give up their cars in favour of walking and cycling; and
• Ask Camden Council to support national legislation on local carbon budgets being promoted by Friends of the Earth.

We recently responded to two consultations run by Camden Council: the Environmental Sustainability Plan and the Draft Transport Strategy.  

See below for our responses:

• Camden Friends of the Earth response to Camden Environmental Sustainability Plan 2011-2020 (pdf)
• Camden Friends of the Earth response to Camden Draft Transport Strategy 2011-2031 (pdf)

In 2010 we campaigned to Fix the Food Chain and to cut carbon emissions locally and nationally, getting support from local people and community groups, speaking to MPs and councillors, and attending some great events including Camden Green Fair… we had some great lobbying successes, and some unforgettable events from the well-attended MP hustings before the elections, to our fundraising banquet and swap shop!

See our 2010 Review of the Year (PDF) to read about all our campaigns, events and activities that Camden Friends of the Earth organised and participated in last year - thank you to everyone involved.

And, if you’d like to be involved in 2011, get in touch - everyone is welcome!

A reminder that from 2011 our regular monthly meetings will now be on the first Tuesday of each month (not Mondays as previously!).

Our first meeting of 2011 will therefore be on Tuesday 4th January, 7.30pm at the Pirate Castle, Oval Road.

And if you haven’t registered for either of the following free events, both on Saturday 29 January - please do! Members from Camden FoE will be at both:

• Friends of the Earth Regional Gathering - a great introduction to FoE, current campaigns and skillshares
• Camden Green Summit - a day of interactive sessions to consider the delivery plan for a greener Camden

Camden Friends of the Earth braved the cold weather to join in with the March for a Zero Carbon Britain on Saturday 4 December 2010, organised by the Campaign against Climate Change.

The day started with a protest cycle ride from Lincoln’s Inn Fields, followed by a giant aerial photo in Hyde Park spelling out ‘2030′ with a giant zero to illustrate the call for a Zero Carbon Britain by 2030 (if you look very closely you might spot Maria and Susan at the bottom of the final zero!). The march then made its way from Hyde Park, culminating in a rally by the Houses of Parliament, where we heard speakers including Andy Atkins, Executive Director of Friends of the Earth and MP Caroline Lucas (see video below).

To end an inspiring (but cold!) day, Jess sang at the after party, held at the Enterprise pub in Holborn.

Together with Brent FoE and Barnet FoE we had letters published in local newspapers on the dubious ‘green’ claims of energy from waste and the North London Waste Authority:
‘Waste plan is dubious‘ in the Ham & High, 18 November 2010
‘A chance to invest in technology that has real benefit‘ in the Barnet Press, 25 November 2010

(Click on the images to view larger)

Hungry for Change?

Join us for the Screening of Academy Award Nominee Best Documentary Feature
“FOOD, INC.” at Inspiral Cafe, Camden, Tuesday 7 December 2010
Screening to start at 7.30pm. Entry by donation (£2 suggested)

Download the event flyer here

Food, Inc. reveals surprising—and often shocking truths—about what we eat, how it’s produced, who we have become and where we are going from here.

There will be a Q&A/discussion after the film with guest speakers including Friends of the Earth food campaigners and Transition Belsize.

Sign up to our Facebook event page for the film screening and please invite your friends!