Reading Climate Action Network website
The Government is seeking views on a new Clean Air Strategy, and on actions to improve air quality by reducing pollution from a wide range of sources.
Closes 14th August 2018-
https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/air-quality-draft-clean-air-strategy-2018
This Friday, 27th July – 1pm – I’m very excited to be joining Fiona Talkington (BBC Radio 3 presenter and festival curator), and 3 other panelists to talk about “ice, climate change, silence, darkness and beyond”. It’s going to be a really interesting cross-over between what I’ve been doing as part of the Reading Climate Change Partnership, and my other world as a musician.
You can book free tickets through: https://merl.reading.ac.uk/event/climate-symposium-world-without/
Internationally renowned ice musician and Director of Ice Music Festival Norway.
Emile is a photographer, writer and broadcaster. Passionate about music, his acclaimed Welcome to the Quiet Zone was recently repeated on BBC Radio 4.
Local musician and passionate environmentalist, Chris is Chair of the Reading Climate Change Partnership.
Nyani Quarmyne’s photographs of coastal erosion in Ghana bring a moving and powerful perspective to the discussion. Nyani is from Reading’s Twin Town of Düsseldorf.
BBC Radio presenter on Radio3 and 4 for over 20 years, Fiona was brought up and still lives in Reading. She has worked extensively in Norway with music, literature, art and film and has hosted and chaired events in the worlds of the arts, health and education in the UK and abroad.
Admission is free but tickets must be booked through Reading Fringe Festival
I had a good meeting with Matt Rodda (MP for East Reading) this afternoon. We talked about the plans that we have for the RCCP over the next couple of years, and what Matt can do to help us out. Of particular interest:
Chris Beales
RCCP Chair
13/7/18
“Climate Just is an information tool designed to help with the delivery of equitable responses to climate change at the local level. Its main focus is to assist the development of socially just responses to the impacts of extreme events, such as flooding and heatwaves, as well as supporting wider climate change adaptation. It also includes issues related to fuel poverty and carbon emissions.”
There is a lot of useful information on this website, which will be useful for many members of RCAN.
If you would like to be added to our limited mailing group, please send us an e-mail climate.change![[@]](http://chrisbeales.net/images/_at.gif "...an attempt to avoid being inundated by spam from programs that trawl internet sites for e-mail addresses...")
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All of this information will also be posted on our Twitter feed, which you may like to follow instead. And you can always find out what is going on by visiting this website.
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This ‘Reading Climate Forum’ event was held at on 20 November 2017, in the conference hall at RISC – 35 London Street, Reading.
Rayner Mayer (Sciotech) – explained the need for ground source heat pumps in Reading, and the opportunity we have to take advantage of the chalk that underlies the town.
Chris Beales (Environment Agency) – talked about how groundwater is used, and some of the challenges faced in London by users of a different version of the technology.
Darren Wilkinson (Vexo International) – explained the technical solutions for making existing domestic heating systems a lot more efficient…which is very important for a scheme like the one being proposed.
Stuart Gadsden (Kensa Contracting) – explained how the closed-loop systems work in practice, and gave us examples of successful schemes for housing associations.
We finished with a discussion about a pilot project, to test the technology in Reading. This has the support of the Reading Climate Change Partnership, and we are looking forward to seeing the results.
“The effect of Architecture and Urban design on new buildings and refurbishments to achieve low environmental impact”
Professor Lorraine Farrelly has adopted our suggested topic for a School of Architecture public meeting. Thursday 17th November 2016. 6:00 pm in the School of Architecture Building, London Road campus, University of Reading.
Michael Bright and Chris Beales – Friday 4th November 2016
“We live in a water stressed area. Learn about the impact of climate change on our water supplies with wetter winters and drier summers, where our drinking water comes from and what we can do to be more efficient in our water use.”
Chris Beales is a hydrologist working for the Environment Agency. He will talk about the current pressures on our local river system, and how change change is predicted to affect our rivers in the future.
Michael Bright is a water industry consultant. He will talk about how Thames Water supply water to our homes in Reading. He will discuss some of the challenges and what we can do as individuals to reduce pressure on our water resources.
We look forward to welcoming you to this, the fourth of our Autumn series of talks. It will be a lively and interesting discussion.
This is the third of our Autumn 2016 series of public talks related to climate change. Around a fifth of the UK’s carbon emissions come from domestic heating so reducing heat loss from homes and using energy efficient techniques will play an important part in meeting our climate change targets and keeping running costs down. Three speakers will provide an overview of the options and will describe some of the different techniques in detail.
Well-insulated and draught-proofed homes need to be properly ventilated so MVHR – Mechanical Ventilation with Heat Recovery – is important to ensure comfort and prevent condensation while minimising heat loss. Dr. Sue Roberts of energy assessors Ecomorph will describe how this works drawing on her experience turning her home into a ‘Superhome’.
Dr. Rayner Mayer of Sciotech Projects Ltd will explain how ‘heat pumps’ can multiply the energy in ‘green’ electricity to replace gas boilers as the UK abandons the use of fossil fuels. One example is the Student Services Building at Reading University which represents the current state of the art of low energy building and is heated and cooled by heat pumps using under floor heating. Heat pumps are widely used in air conditioning but studies suggest that Reading’s geology is particularly well-suited to exploiting heat held in the ground.
Lee Webster – Business Development Director of Aldermaston-based Anesco – the energy-efficiency solutions company – will give an industry view.
