Reading Climate Action Network website
It was great to be able to share some of the thing we are planning to do in our new Reading Climate Emergency Strategy last night. Many thanks to Michael Bright, and all at Reading Town Meal, for organising the event and for keeping things going despite the Covid restrictions.
As promised here are our presentations:
The first draft of our food waste fermentation and composting advice is available and we’d love some feedback to nature@readingcan.org.uk whilst the graphically capable amongst us make it look pretty for the real thing. Does it help? What’s unclear?
The early Spring meant the earliest average emergence of butterflies in the last 20 years. . Please spend just 15 minutes on a sunny day (don’t choose boiling hot at midday weather) to count butterflies in your garden or on your daily exercise route so that Butterfly Conservation can understand how the changing weather patterns affects populations.
You can download an app to identify and count butterflies on the move, or scribble in a notebook to enter the data later at the butterfly count website
You ‘ve probably noticed that Reading Borough Council is leaving a number of grass verges and roundabouts to grow longer this year rather than having their normal 6-7 cuts a year. This is part of their commitment to the climate action plan and biodiversity action plan, but monitoring is needed to review the impact of these changes, both good and bad. You can help with this if you record your interesting sightings on their rewilding page (deer already seen on one), which is where to go to read more about this action and the location of rewilding sites.
John Christensen, who chairs the Tax Justice Network, gave a great talk on equitable options to finance the necessary changes to hit carbon net zero. You can read it on https://www.taxjustice.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Just-Transition-RICS-11-MAR-2020.pdf
there is a two part newsletter giving more details about these ideas , including methods of sustainable cost reporting (SCORE) of greenhouse gas emissions. https://www.taxjustice.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/TJF_2020_11-2_V3.pdf
thanks to everyone who supported this new renewable energy scheme for Reading,. Construction can now start
Earth Hour is a global WWF (formerly known as World Wildlife Fund) climate change initiative which brings attention to the effects of climate change by asking people to switch of lights at homes and businesses for an hour at 8.30pm (20:30), local time, usually on the last Saturday of March. This Year it falls on 30th March.
From the Sydney Opera House and the Empire State Building to Buckingham Palace and Edinburgh Castle, communities like yours have switched off their lights in a symbolic show of support. Last year over 10 million people across the UK took part to send a clear message: We’re fighting for our world.
Many of us feel powerless in the face of overwhelming threats to the planet. But when we all come together for Earth Hour, we create a strong voice that can change things for the better.
The power of our combined voices has already helped to:
And 90% of people who take part in Earth Hour say it inspires them to do more to protect the planet
190 countries will meet in Katowice, Poland in December for the annual UN Climate Conference, COP24 and it must get results on action towards all countries’ Paris Agreement targets.
Teams of students from six local secondary schools will also meet on 5th December to carry out their own debate on progress towards the Paris Agreement and try to negotiate raising ambition for more action.
They will represent 14 different countries from Fiji to the USA. As in the real COP24, the country teams will have a significant challenge as a summary produced by the organisers, InterClimate Network, shows that progress towards Paris targets has been slower than the world needs.
In the second part of the afternoon, local sustainability leaders and active organisations will work with students in mini-workshops linked directly to RCAN’s themes. We want students to be encouraged to generate their own pledges and inspired to take on their own climate action back at school.
Thanks go to the Mayor of Reading and Reading Borough Council for hosting this event and to Reading Climate Change Partnership and RBC’s Sustainability Team for their active support.
| School | Countries |
|---|---|
| The Bulmershe School | Bangladesh, Indonesia and Australia |
| Highdown School | Fiji and USA |
| Kendrick School | EU/Poland, India and Nigeria |
| Maiden Erlegh School in Reading | Cuba and UK |
| Prospect School | Kenya and China |
| Waingels College | Brazil and Russia |