Towards a Low Carbon Kirklees – 28th November 2015

Towards a Low Carbon Kirklees
An exciting day conference

Saturday 28th November 2015
10.30am to 4.30 pm
At Quayside at the University of Huddersfield

Towards a Low Carbon Kirklees will concentrate on how the issues of climate change affect us locally. We’ll be looking to you for ideas and solutions about collective actions that will contribute to a successful transition to a low carbon economy – in our communities and through our council and university.

Whilst there are already a number of fantastic initiatives in Kirklees, there is so much more that can be done. Now that Kirklees Council has committed to divesting of fossil fuel investment, how are we progressing in reducing our carbon dependency in other areas?

Book tickets for Towards a Low Carbon Kirklees 

Speakers

• Elizabeth Cox leads the New Economy in Practice team at the New Economics Foundation (NEF). Her work includes supporting Local Authorities to develop economic strategies and supporting community groups to deliver projects which impact on their local economies.NEF is an independent think tank that specialises in innovative economic thinking.

  More about Elizabeth Cox

   

• Sir John Harman has been chair of The Institute for European Environmental Policy’s Board of Trustees since September 2010 and attended the United Nations Earth Summit in 2012. John was chairman of the Environment Agency from 2000 until 2008. His tenure as chairman saw fundamental reshaping of both Flood Risk and Environmental Protection policy. Prior to this he was leader of Kirklees Council for 13 years.

Other Speakers and workshop leaders

• Cllr David Sheard (Leader, Kirklees Council)
• Richard Hollinson (Policy Group Leader, Planning at Kirklees Council)
• Chris Herring (Director, Green Building Store and leading expert on Passivhaus)
• Prof Paul Salveson (local transport expert)
• Cllr Andrew Cooper (local councillor, Green Party spokesperson on energy)

Workshops

Afternoon workshops will include Energy, Planning, Housing, Economy, Food, Transport and the University. The morning session will feature a breakout session where you can help set the agenda for these workshops on up to three issues.

The day will bring together key action points for our communities, Kirklees Council and the University in a Manifesto for Change.

Tickets

The conference is organised by Kirklees Environment Partnership and Students for Sustainability at the University of Huddersfield.

FULL TICKET – with lunch £11.50, without lunch £6.50
STUDENTS – with lunch £6.50, without lunch free
CONCESSIONS – with lunch £10, without lunch £5.00

Book tickets for Towards a Low Carbon Kirklees 

Planet Festival – Saturday 5th September 2015

Planet Festival
Saturday 5th September 2015
From 1pm to 4pm
In Greenhead Park, Huddersfield

Come and support the Planet Festival in Greenhead Park. Huddersfield Friends of the Earth have organised a fun-packed afternoon with lots to see, hear, learn and enjoy. There will be over 20 stalls, including Growing Newsome, plus music, short films, dance, children’s activities and a speakers corner. Have a look at the Planet Festival Programme (PDF) for more details.

Visit our Growing Newsome stall:

• Find out how to get involved with community food growing in Newsome
• Pick up tips on eco-friendly food growing
• Choose from our freshly made seasonal preserves – all home grown and home made, with fruit and vegetables donated by our volunteers and friends
• Hear about our volunteering opportunities

You’ll find us in the field below the model railway from 1pm to 4pm.

Also look out for opportunities to support climate campaigns through petitions and local activism.

Check out the Planet Festival Programme (PDF) for details of where to find all the activities on the day.

 

Here’s why Huddersfield Friends of the Earth have organised this fantastic festival:

Now more than ever we need to stand up for the climate. For nearly 30 years we have been told we have to decrease carbon emissions to limit global temperature increases to under 20C. This has not happened and we are now on track to global temperature increases of 40C + by the end of the century, causing more and more extreme weather events such as flooding, storms, sea level rise, droughts, food shortages.

Find out more on the Huddersfield Friends of the Earth blog

 

“This Changes Everything” Film Festival – Saturday 4th July 2015

“This Changes Everything”  Film Festival
Saturday 4th July 2015
From 11am to 6pm (three sessions)

The Red and Green Club, 42 Bankwell Road, Milnsbridge, Huddersfield HD3 4LU

A festival of over a dozen short films exploring environmental and social justice.

Free: Donations welcome, with all proceeds to The Red & Green Club.
Drinks available from bar (please feel free to bring your own pack lunch).

11am to 1.45pm – Land, Air, Water: Extreme energy & community alternatives

Taking on Tarmageddon (53 min)

Banking while Borneo Burns (14 min)

Wind turbine school (13 min)

Wind of Change (15 min)

Sisters on the Planet: Sahena (Bangladesh) & Martina (Uganda) (14 min)

Shaking the Tree (4 min)

Followed by discussion

1.45pm to 3.30pm – An Economy for the People: Past, present, future…

March 4 Homes (11 min)

12 Bar Club Occupation (14 min)

Camden Council: Pay Living Wage! (8 min)

Alternative Economies (5 min)

With Banners Held High (31 min)

Followed by discussion

3.30pm to 6pm – False solutions vs Real solutions

Biomass Emergency (25 min)

Voices from the Gasfields (61 min)

One Million Climate Jobs (33 min)

Followed by discussion

Feel free to join us for entire sessions or to turn up for particular films.

Organised by Kirklees Campaign Against Climate Change.

More information:

“This Changes Everything” Film Festival – Kirklees Campaign Against Climate Change

“This Changes Everything” Film Festival poster (pdf)

Join us 27th Nov: ECO-nomy public meeting – Putting people & communities first through climate action

An event from our friends at Kirklees Campaign Against Climate Change…

Kirklees Campaign Against Climate Change

On Thursday 27th November at the Huddersfield Methodist Mission we will be holding an ‘ECO-nomy’ public meeting exploring ways in which we could create a green economy that works for people and planet.

We are really pleased to have four speakers for this event:

• Simon Brett from the PCS (Public and Commercial Services) Union will be speaking about the PCS’ approach to green workplaces (http://www.pcs.org.uk/en/resources/green_workplaces/) including green reps (http://www.pcs.org.uk/en/resources/green_workplaces/green-reps/index.cfm) as well as the union’s support for climate and social justice campaigning (including, since 2009, support for the ‘One Million Climate Jobs’ report – for more details see next paragraph).
• Martin Empson from the Campaign Against Climate Change will be speaking about the latest edition of the ‘One Million Climate Jobs’ report http://www.campaigncc.org/greenjobs and the ‘Time to Act’ mobilisation  http://www.campaigncc.org/TimetoAct that will happen in London on March 7th 2015.
• Chris Fitzsimmons from Kirklees Citizens Advice will focus his presentation on…

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Clean Energy 2030 Vigil

Clean Energy 2030 Vigil

Friday 10th May

St George’s Square, Huddersfield

Assemble from 6.15pm

Vigil will last 2030 seconds from 6.35pm to around 7.13pm

Join the Kirklees Campaign Against Climate Change in calling on Jason McCartney MP, Simon Reevell MP and Craig Whittaker MP to support a clean energy target in Parliament in the next few weeks.

At the moment an Energy Bill is passing through parliament.

The government’s independent advisor, the Committee on Climate Change has said that the Bill needs to include a clear target for virtually carbon free electricity by 2030.  This has been supported by many groups.

If the Bill includes a target for electricity to be carbon free it will help us to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions and meet our climate targets. It will also provide a big boost to the green economy which provided 1/3 of growth during 2011 and will make us less dependent on expensive and scarce gas supplies.

In the next few weeks MPs will be voting on an amendment tabled by Tim Yeo, the chair of the Committee on Energy and Climate Change which will provide a clear target for virtually carbon-free electricity by 2030.

More information about the vigil

More information about the campaign

Contact your MP about the clean energy target

Clean British Energy / Green is Working lobby

Saturday 24th November 2012
Huddersfield Town Hall, Ramsden Street

An action from the Kirklees Campaign Against Climate Change to say that the government’s Energy Bill must build the green economy.

Did you know?

• Last year 1/3 of UK economic growth came from green businesses.
• The renewable electricity industry already employs 110, 000 people with the potential to employ tens of thousands more people.
• Developing the green economy would reduce the UK’s balance of payments by reducing our imports of fossil fuels.
• Green energy would help regional economies grow across the UK.

The Kirklees Campaign Against Climate Change are calling on the government to:

Decarbonise Electricity by 2030 and
Keep Aviation and Shipping in the Climate Act

11.45 am Photo stunt (Please wear something green)

12 noon to 12.30pm Lobby of Jason McCartney, MP for the Colne Valley. Please note: This meeting is by prior arrangement so if you would like to attend please email kirkleesccc@hotmail.co.uk by Wednesday 21st November 2012.

For more information see:

Green is Working – Stop Climate Chaos

Clean British Energy – Kirklees Campaign Against Climate Change

Green is Working poster (pdf)

The Arctic Vigil – 28th September 2012

 

Photo: Greenpeace

“What we are seeing, here and now, is the transformation of the atmospheric physics of this planet. Three weeks before the likely minimum, the melting of Arctic sea ice has already broken the record set in 2007. The daily rate of loss is now 50% higher than it was that year.

The daily sense of loss – of the world we loved and knew – cannot be quantified so easily” [George Monbiot August 27th]

Bear witness

The Arctic Vigil

St George’s Square Huddersfield

Friday 28th September 6.20pm to 7.30 pm.

Wear white (or something white).Bring your own jar for tea light.

Readings, learning, public engagement, silence.

“What is happening is that the Arctic is warming up 3-4 times as fast as the rest of the world. The sea ice grows less thick in winter, and melts more in summer, such that the entire ice cover is now on the point of collapse. The extra open water already created by the retreating ice allows bigger waves to be generated by storms, which are sweeping away the surviving ice. It is truly the case that it will be all gone by 2015. The consequences are enormous – a huge boost to global warming from two sources, the reduction in global albedo caused by the replacement of ice by open water, and an acceleration of methane release into the atmosphere as the warm open water causes seabed permafrost to melt.”
[Professor Peter Wadhams,
Head of the Polar Oceans Physics Group at Cambridge University]

The Arctic ice cap is disappearing before our eyes: this is the first large scale unmistakable impact of climate change, clearly visible from space. The arctic sea-ice broke an all time record for lowest ever extent on Friday 24^th August (after breaking several other records according to other methodologies of measurement by other scientific institutions etc…). This was a bombshell because it was nearly a month before you would expect the ice to reach its seasonal minimum – it is still decreasing now and we can expect it to continue decreasing until around mid September.

Bear witness

Organised by:
Kirklees Campaign against Climate Change
c/o 36 Long Lane, Honley, West Yorkshire , HD9 6EA