Great news - Camden Council have just announced a seminar on cutting CO2 emissions across Camden by 40% in 2020 - the target of our Get Serious about CO2 campaign!

The event, “Cutting Camden’s CO2 by 2020: working together for a greener Camden“, will be held on Monday 6 September, 7-8pm, Council Chamber, Camden Town Hall, Judd Street WC1.

Chris Dunham of Carbon Descent will present Camden’s recently completed feasibility work on how Camden can achieve 40% CO2 reduction. They will focus on:

• which low carbon strategies and technologies are likely to have the biggest impact
• the probable challenges
• the role people in Camden can play in Camden’s low carbon transition

After the presentation, there will be an opportunity to discuss the feasibility work with Carbon Descent and members of Camden’s sustainability team.

It sounds like a great event and shows how successful our campaign has been so far, with the council putting effort and resources into seeing how we can achieve substantial CO2 reductions across the borough.

All are welcome to attend - please contact harold.garner@camden.gov.uk if you plan to go along.

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Cecil Sharp House in Regents Park Road was host to the wonderful London Permaculture Festival today, with talks, workshops, films and environmental groups from all over London joining in!

Sharat, Shiv and Susan had a successful day’s campaigning on Fix the Food Chain, getting over 100 postcards signed to persuade MPs to support the Sustainable Livestock Bill. Our ‘moo masks’ were popular with younger visitors and there were some great ideas added to our planet-friendly farming ideas tree…

“happier animals make tastier meat!”…”every council should provide subsidised veg + fruit growing lessons”…”family days on organic/permaculture farms”…”supermarkets to support local growers”

We also got a lot of interest for our upcoming 10/10/10 vegan banquet event (please save the date…more details on this to be announced soon!).

You can also take an online action to ask your MP to support the Sustainable Livestock Bill in its reading in Parliament in November.

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Thousands of premature death every year can be attributed to air pollution in London. More than 4000 only to fine particulate matter called PM2.5. This is 20 times more than road fatalities!
In this context, I worked on the data coming out of a study on PM2.5 commissioned by the Greater London Authority [June 2010 report]. The data tells us that:

• Camden is the second most polluted London Borough, after Westminster,
• More than 100 people in Camden die from PM2.5 pollution each year.

I designed a couple of maps to show the levels of pollution across London and across Camden. They highlight the contributions of Heathrow airport and of road traffic. On the Camden map, you can see hundreds of black dots representing the premature deaths attributable to PM2.5. The dots do not indicate an accurate location but their quantity is precisely matching the number of deaths by ward.

- - - - - - - - London Map - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Camden Map - - - - - - - -

If you believe things must change, please have a look at the draft London Air Quality Strategy. Consultation goes on until 13 August, 2010 - 17:00. Let’s together use this blog to discuss the Mayor’s strategy and prepare a collective input to the debate!

First, and in order to trigger a debate, the Mayor seems to believe in electric vehicles and in the possibility of a smoother traffic flow. Other cities go the other way round and invests in tramways, bus priority and pedestrianised streets. Which strategy is the best? Hard to tell… but which one would deliver a broad range of long term benefits across policy areas?

Alex

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Are you aged between 18-30? Live in London? Passionate about the environment? Keen to get involved in actions around the capital? Friends of the Earth is looking to develop a new network of activists in London, bringing together people aged 18-30 to take part in a variety of campaign actions and social activities across the capital.

Group members of Camden FoE will be involved - we think it sounds like a great way of mobilising campaigners across London. If you’ve never been involved with Friends of the Earth activities before this is a great opportunity to get involved in new ways of environmental campaigning!

Find out more on the Friends of the Earth website.

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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.

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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!

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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.

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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!

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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.

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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…

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