Note that the petition is presented by 12yr old Skye and an Extinction rebellion campaigner at 10 mins in. It is great to see the passion and interest from our community here.
This is obviously a huge commitment for the town, with the demand for Zero Carbon by 2030…only 10 years away!
We will need everyone’s help to make this happen: public sector, businesses, national government, and all of us as individuals. We’re starting development of our third Reading Climate Change Strategy (2020-2025) so please do get involved and help us: come along to our Launch Event (13 June). There is a lot to do but together we can make it happen!
Wishing you well.
Chris Beales, RCCP Chair
Original post (8 Feb)
A very exciting news story for Reading: the council are looking to commit us to deliver Zero Carbon Reading by 2030. See the article in the Reading Chronicle (here).
We will update this post with more information over the next few days. There is obviously an enormous amount to do to make this happen…but it has to happen if we want any hope of limiting climate change to 1.5degC!
Over the next few months we will be starting our consultation on the next Reading Climate Change Strategy. This is an opportunity for everybody to get involved and help us get Reading ready for the challenges ahead.
DEFRA proposes four new measures designed to increase transparency and accountability in the process of felling street trees and to strengthen the Forestry Commission’s power to tackle illegal tree felling.
Two of the measures introduce new duties on local authorities: a duty to consult on the felling of street trees and a duty to report on tree felling and replanting.
A third policy suggests the production of best practice guidance to support local authorities in drawing up, consulting on and publishing a Tree and Woodland Strategy.
The fourth measure is intended to give the Forestry Commission more powers to tackle illegal tree felling and strengthen protection of wooded landscapes.
This consultation seeks views on these measures and their implementation and is open until 28th February
If you don’t want to read the whole document, then perhaps make representations through the woodland trust website that has a suggested set of responses to some of the issues https://campaigns.woodlandtrust.org.uk/page/36795/action/1?utm_campaign=2282329_B04_12624_Jan19Campaigning_190115&utm_medium=email&utm_source=woodlandtrust&dm_i=2D76,1CX21,8ZNDLA,4G981,1
DEFRA is consulting on their proposals to make biodiversity net gain necessary for developments when granting planning permission. This approach aims to leave the natural environment in a measurably better state than beforehand.
Give your views on their proposals by 10th February on https://consult.defra.gov.uk/land-use/net-gain/
Chris Beales (RCCP Chair) and Ben Burfoot (RBC Sustainability Manager) will present the Reading Climate Change Strategy, and discuss plans to adapt to the changing climate and to reduce our carbon footprint. These are hugely important challenges for our town and will be big factors in shaping the Reading 2050 vision.
Looking beyond the current take-make-dispose Linear extractive industrial model, a circular economy aims to redefine growth, focusing on positive society-wide benefits. It entails gradually decoupling economic activity from the consumption of finite resources, and designing waste out of the system. Underpinned by a transition to renewable energy sources, the circular model builds economic, natural, and social capital. It is based on three principles:
Design out waste and pollution
Keep products and materials in use
Regenerate natural systems
Circular Ecosystem
In broader terms, the circular approach is a framework that takes insights from living systems. It considers that our systems should work like organisms, processing nutrients that can be fed back into the cycle—whether biological or technical—hence the “closed loop” or “regenerative” terms usually associated with it.
The circular economy model synthesises several major schools of thought. They include the functional service economy (performance economy) of Walter Stahel; the Cradle to Cradle design philosophy of William McDonough and Michael Braungart; biomimicry as articulated by Janine Benyus; the industrial ecology of Reid Lifset and Thomas Graedel; natural capitalism by Amory and Hunter Lovins and Paul Hawken; and the blue economy systems approach described by Gunter Pauli.
Amsterdam to be fully circular by 2050
Building upon the Dutch national strategy, Amsterdam has committed to becoming fully circular by 2050. It has started the journey to become a circular city with the Circle City in 2015, and has since then started more than 70 pilots in the circular economy.Amsterdam have pioneered a ‘learning by doing’ approach in the circular economy, which has been evaluated in 2017.
Amsterdam to be fully circular by 2050
Amsterdam is a hotspot for digital technology, circular design and lifetime extension
Digital technology, circular design and lifetime extension are the most important elements for circular employment in the AMA, and thus, form the distinctive feature of the circular economy in the AMA. Furthermore, in line with national trends, the urban centers throughout the AMA provide the largest number of enabling circular jobs, while core circular employment is located within the urban peripheries.You can read the full proposal here.
Under the General Data Protection Regulations 2018 you have the right to know what data is held under your name, what it is used for and how to get it deleted. you also have a right to request a copy of the data held at any time. If you want a copy of your data, want something changed or removed and cannot do it yourself, please contact info@readingcan.org.uk (climate.change@reading.gov.uk).
This is intentionally a information only website. We host the Reading Climate Action Network Strategy and information, weblinks and events associated with the activities of the Network.
Otherwise, we do not collect personal information through the website. We have disabled the commenting facilities and we do not use any online forms to collect any of your details. Any personal information (e.g. names and photographs) will have been agreed by one of the website authors before being manually posted. We do not store any personal information in cookies.
This site contains links to other sites. The Reading Climate Change Partnership is not responsible for the privacy practices or the content of such web sites.
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The annual UN Climate Conference, COP24 is taking place in Katowice, Poland. It started on the 2nd Dec and will finish on the 14th Dec. 190 countries are meeting at COP24 and must get results on action towards all countries’ Paris Agreement targets.
Teams of students from secondary schools across Reading, representing 15 countries from Fiji to USA, met in the Council Chambers on Wednesday 5th December to carry out their own talks on progress towards the Paris Agreement and try to negotiate raising ambition for more action.
Prof. Paul Williams from University of Reading addressed the children and emphasized the realities of global warming and human interference. Councillor Tony Page, lead member for Strategic Environment, said: “Climate change is a subject which young people rightly feel passionate about. The mock conference was opened by the Mayor of Reading, councillor Debs Edwards and children were asked to exchange ideas to tackle this global problem.
Councillors and Professors at the Summit
What is happening on Climate Change around the world?
On 3rd Dec 2018, Sir David Attenborough said the below at the COP24
“Right now, we are facing a man-made disaster of global scale. Our greatest threat in thousands of years, Climate change. If we don’t take action, the collapse of our civilisations and the extinction of much of the natural world is on the horizon.”
The clear messages the students gave for everyone in the Council Chambers were on similar lines too:
the immediacy of the effects of climate change for every country in the world, the effects being especially hard-hitting for vulnerable countries
the complexity of decision-making and contradictions of policy-making, particularly where economic interests based on fossil fuels, and political reticence are taking precedence
the vital part that cooperation between countries can play in increasing momentum by helping to distribute finance, and to learn from great ideas that are already working elsewhere in the world.
School students discussing Climate Change
What can we do locally about Climate Change?
The second part of the conference brought Local Action into sharp focus. The extent of the commitment to climate action by Local Government was strongly conveyed by Cllr Tony Page in his opening words and Chris Beales, Chair of the Reading Climate Change Partnership. He stressed the part that each individual has to play, and what students in particular can do to help galvanise others.
Chris Beales at Reading Schools Climate Change Summit 2018
“…schools are really influential parts of our community, if you pass on what you know about climate change to your fellow students, and teachers…and you all pass on to your friends and families…we can reach a lot of people. And this is such an important issue…we need you to pester, and jump up and down about this until we get it sorted.” – Chris Beales
Sustainability experts from Reading Climate Change Partnership, Reading Council’s Sustainability Team and local organisations provided details of great local initiatives and ways for students to make a difference: from energy use in school, growing food, using green space differently through to signing up to a transport initiative or influencing recycling. Each school went away with at least one idea or ‘pledge’ for what they can do, and ICN will follow to make sure that the tools are in place for going about it.
Our huge thanks go to Reading Borough Council for hosting the event and Reading Climate Change Partnership for its support.
Councillors: The Mayor of Reading Councillor Debs Edwards, Councillor Tony Page, Deputy Leader of the Council
Keynote: Professor Paul D Williams, Professor of Atmospheric Science in the Department of Meteorology at the University of Reading, UK http://www.met.reading.ac.uk/~williams/
Workshop contributors: Nature Nurture, Reading Borough Council Sustainability Team, Reading Climate Change Partnership, Reading International Solidarity Centre, Reading 2050, Stuart Singleton-White COnsultant, University of Reading Dept of Environmental Science.
The Environment Agency is investigating options to reduce flood risk in north Reading and Lower Caversham.
Flooding in this area affects homes, businesses, utilities and a number of busy roads for long periods of time. We have been investigating a number of options, most of which include building flood walls and embankments.
The Environment Egency are inviting the residents to come to a drop-in on Thursday 6 December from 2.30pm to 7.30pm
Caversham Baptist Church, South Street, Caversham, Reading, RG4 8HY
Representing Cuba at the Schools Climate Conference Summit 2017
Representing Bangladesh at the Schools Climate Summit 2017
Schools Climate Conference 2017
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.
