The Get Serious about CO₂ campaign is asking Camden Council to commit to cutting CO₂ in the borough by at least 40 per cent by 2020 – and produce an action plan detailing how it’s going to happen.

What can the council do?

The council could influence 80 per cent of Camden’s emissions – as it has a big say over energy, housing and transport. Camden Council claims to be a leader in tackling climate change. But at the moment it doesn’t have a comprehensive action plan for cutting emissions in the borough.

If the Council were to implement energy saving measures, for example, it could help Camden residents cut bills, cut carbon, and could create up to 422 green jobs in the borough, to give it an economic boost.

Campaign supporters

We’re campaigning across the borough getting the public to sign postcards to send to Camden Councillors, to encourage them to Get Serious.

Total postcards signed so far asking the leader of Camden Council to commit the council to Get Serious about CO2: 355 (click to view a map showing the number of people who’ve signed postcards to their local councillors)

Support the campaign online - ask your local council to Get Serious about CO2 through the Friends of the Earth website. Or, if you live in the borough of Camden contact us if you’d like to help out with campaigning on this issue, or if you or your family/friends/neighbours/community group would like to sign a postcard to support the campaign!

We’ve received support for the campaign from a number of local community groups, from Transition groups from Bloomsbury to Hampstead, and local businesses and organisations including Alara Wholefoods, Camden Arts Centre, Camden Coffee House, Camden Cycles, Camden Garden Centre, InSpiral Lounge, the NUS, Planet Organic, Triyoga, UCH, and Unison. On a national level the campaign is also supported by Environmental Protection UK and the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health.

We’ve been asking people in Camden to pose for photos with their most serious face, to show their support for the campaign. We’ve had support from Frank Dobson, MP for Holborn & St Pancras, as well as Raj Chada, ex-leader of Camden Council.

MP Frank Dobson asks Camden Council to Get Serious about CO₂

MP Frank Dobson, pictured right, pulls a serious face through a giant mock antique gilt photo frame, to urge Camden council to ‘Get Serious’

We spoke with Frank about the campaign and the possibilities to cut CO₂ in Camden. He agreed that energy saving in particular has lots of benefits: “Energy saving measures are good for the environment, they help people keep warm, as well as saving money, and they also create lots of jobs. These are local jobs which can’t be outsourced to cheap labour overseas. The work has to be done here by people in our streets and our blocks of flats.”

Frank also spoke about the importance of energy saving in a speech in the House of Commons on 3 July 2009 - read the full text of his speech - and he agreed that there’s a lot the Council can do on a local level to reduce CO₂ emissions.

People in Camden asking the council to Get Serious:

Read more about the national campaign on the Friends of the Earth website, including reports, case studies and news on the 12 councils who’ve already signed up to the campaign.