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.

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.