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 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.

On Thursday 4 March local groups from across London (including Southwark, Kensingon, Chelsea & Westminster, Hackney, Dagenham and Barnet) met at head office for the London Local Groups Forum meeting.

We spoke about what local groups were up to, what campaigns we were working on: all groups were working on Get Serious or Fix the Food Chain, or both (like us!). We heard about some interesting projects including Southwark’s Homes Going Green and the High Barnet Green Home Zone, and how Hackney local group had divided their group into sub-groups for people interested in public speaking, street stalls and research.

For campaigning during the run-up to elections on May 6 there’s a new website http://election.foe.co.uk which includes a blog and resources for election campaigning and an online action to co-sign a letter to party leaders calling for determined action to tackle climate change - if you haven’t signed this already please do!

We spoke about London strategies: Boris Johnson has just released his draft climate change strategy, but it’s not good enough! His CO2 emissions reductions target is 38% by 2020 (FoE are calling for at least 40% by 2020). His draft transport plan, also recently released, removes lots of good measures proposed by Ken Livingstone e.g. road traffic reduction targets have been removed. All the draft London strategies will be up for public examination in June, July, September, October this year, and we’ll be responding to them as a local group.

The next London Local Groups Forum meeting is on Saturday 5 June at Bonhill House, EC2A 4BX from 9.30am (light breakfast included!) preceeding the Greater South East Regional Gathering. All local group members are welcome to join - find out more and book your place.

We’ve joined forces with environmental groups across Camden - including Camden Greenpeace, Transition Towns, and the Camden Cycling Campaign - to hold the first ever Hampstead & Kilburn Resilience Hustings on Wednesday 14 April in St Stephen’s Church on Rosslyn Hill at 7.30pm

We’ll be asking the Camden question - how well are we prepared for external shocks like climate change and peak oil? The aim is to explain to the parliamentary candidates - our keynote listeners for the evening - what our thinking is on climate change, peak oil and transition through films, drinks, fun and debate.

There will be a screening of the film ‘In Transition’, and you will have the opportunity to pose your environmental questions to parliamentary candidates Glenda Jackson (Lab), Ed Fordham (LibDem), Chris Philp (Con), and Tamsin Omond (The Commons).

The evening is part of Ask the Climate Question, an initiative backed by a coalition of environmental and development charities and not-for-profits across the UK to ensure that climate change is firmly on the election agenda.


Event location map: St Stephen’s, Rosslyn Hill/Pond St, NW3

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For more information please email camdenfoe@gmail.com