Welcome to ACT’s latest newsletter keeping you informed of the activities our Groups have been working on. Do get in touch if you are tempted to join in with any of our projects!

Featuring:
Is Climate Action Becoming Less Of A Priority To The British Public?
Come Together For The Future
Keeping Climate And Our Environment On The Agenda
Wildlife Warden Diary
ACT Community WhatsApp Group
Climate Update: Close to the Line
Tipping Points
Take The Together For Tomorrow Survey
Teign School Community Environment Engagement Event
HVO Heating Oil

Produced by Scott Williams

Is Climate Action Becoming Less Of A Priority To The British Public?

The whole purpose of ACT, enshrined in our Vision, Mission and Practice Statement, is to support our District Council, and residents of Teignbridge to take action towards achieving carbon neutrality. 

So I was drawn to some recent research (read it here) that shows  this is slipping DOWN in peoples’ priorities. So if we are all going to stay motivated to continue to take actions, big and small, and within our own capacities, we need to understand why this is happening. 

However, people have not stopped believing in climate change (84%), and are still worried about it (72%). But paradoxically, we hear little from our government and policymakers about it, even to celebrate our achievements; for example, the fact that we eliminated coal as a source of energy in October 2024, the first G7 country to do so.

Ashurst’s research shows that other more immediate material challenges have taken over as top priorities for us, such as the cost of living, housing, and immigration. This seems obvious to me, when I think about it.   And people don’t know about or feel they benefit from climate action taken to date. The research conducted roundtable discussions with communities and policymakers, which revealed that the narrative of ‘fight’, ‘loss’ and ‘guilt’ risks disengagement and needs to be replaced with something positive. And we don’t feel listened to, or consulted,  leading to a loss of trust in policymakers. Social psychology suggests we are able to support even controversial policy changes if we feel they are fair. Our national response to the pandemic is a good illustration of this. 

There are some clear steps to stop this slide in priorities and rebuild effective action about the crisis. The government should build environmental concerns into all policy areas , so that climate action is seen as part of how the government meets people’s top priorities, for example, in housing, transport and health. The messaging needs to be positive and constructive, such as referring to economic and social justice outcomes. And we need to listen to each other to find out what action people feel is fair and just, for a better future. 

In the next Newsletter, I will write about another angle on this vital topic. 

Mandy Cole
ACT Public Engagement Group

Come Together For The Future

Assemblies are a great way for people to come together and make decisions about what they want to see happen in their local area. They are structured to make sure everyone has a chance to speak. The Newton Abbot Constituency Climate and Nature Bill Group is holding a Climate and Nature Assembly on April 25th at the Courtenay Centre in Newton Abbot. The aim is to come up with actions for our councillors and MP that will help protect our communities from climate change and nature loss. The Newton Abbot MP, Martin Wrigley, will attend the assembly to hear from constituents.

A recent article in the Guardian headlined “Rightwing narrative fuelling false belief UK public oppose net zero, study finds” underlines the need to show our representatives that people want action on the climate and nature emergency. 

So come and add your voice to the discussion.

The assembly runs from 2-4pm, with refreshments served from 1.30pm. You can book via Eventbrite or use the QR code on the poster.

People’s Emergency Briefing

Watch out for screenings of the People’s Emergency Briefing film in your local area, or organise one yourself. The film features nine UK scientists and experts updating us on the climate and nature crisis and its impacts on everyday life, including extreme weather, food security, health, and cost of living.

The film features Chris Packham, Deborah Meaden, some other surprise guests, and a wide range of other voices. Is it based on the National Emergency Briefing that took place in Westminster, as covered by ITV, Channel 4 and the Times newspaper.

Film screenings should be followed by a short open discussion about what we can do and what it means locally. 

The organisers hope to attract anyone and everyone to screenings so as many people as possible are properly informed about the emergency, can take part in discussions about what needs to happen, and encourage their MP to join the call for briefing the entire nation in a prime-time televised emergency briefing.

Pauline Wynter
ACT Public Engagement Group PE Co Chair 

Wildlife Warden Diary

9 March: One of Vicky’s evening TEAMS meetings, to share tips on running Community Bioblitzes.

10 March: Vicky and Audrey did a ‘Bite-sized’ meeting with the Idverde contractor team and Mark and Chrissie from Green Spaces. We were looking at the five previous meetings to see what had been achieved and how everyone felt. We had made some display boards up showing information we’d put together.

13 March: We had a ‘catch up’ meeting with two of our Wildlife Wardens and Ian Eggerton of Devon Biodiversity Records Centre, to discuss the best ways to do Parish wildlife surveys for Parish Councils. We’ll be piloting a method with and for DBRC.

17 March: We ran a hedge survey training session at Deer Park Farm for 13 WWs, using the method approved by Defra. We looked at and evaluated several different hedges for condition and future management advice.

23 March: A Bramble Brook Bioblitz Wild Walk at Deer Park Farm – a tough walk recording all of the wildlife that 11 of us saw, including a quick ‘Brook dip’ for watery invertebrates.

24 March: A TEAMS training meeting covering all aspects of events/walks/volunteer days/fetes etc run by WWs.

Coming up:

April 13: A WADE intro training session.

April 16: A walk around Chudleigh looking at street lighting, its effect on bats, and how to hold developers to their legal planning obligations.

April 22: A Healing Herbs walk at Deer Park Farm with Kerry, our herbalist WW.

April 30: A visit to the Barn Owl Trust Centre in Ashburton.

If you are interested in any of these, but you aren’t a WW, ask Vicky if there are any spare places.

Audrey Compton
ACT Wildlife Wardens

Keeping Climate And Our Environment On The Agenda

With all the turmoil in the world and its repercussions soon to arrive here, it’s easy to forget about the climate and environmental threat. After all, these are framed as problems of the future. This is far from the truth as the damage we are causing now cannot be undone in human timescales. Climate tipping points are likely to take millennia for complex life to adapt to.

Politicians are more likely than others to respond to these short-term impacts, in part down to the nature of our electoral system and political discourse. It’s therefore important that those who’ve declared their concern about the climate and nature, e.g. people signed up to ACT, make their views known to their political representatives.
It came as surprise to learn that locally and more widely in the UK, demands to take effective action on climate change are one of the least frequently received by MPs and Councillors. There are plenty of national/international lobbying initiatives that require a tick to send an e-mail to your MP. If you feel you want to make a more targeted point, go to our FAQs on “Is lobbying local/national government worthwhile?” to see how/what.

Fuad Al-Tawil
Energy group coordinator

ACT Community WhatsApp Group

We have set up a WhatsApp group that any ACT member is welcome to join using this invitation. We already run several WhatsApp groups, including for Wildlife Wardens and Carbon Cutters. We decided to add another group, called ACT Community, to make it easy to communicate with you, and so you can chat to each other about ACT related issues and share your ideas and concerns.

Lots of you probably already belong to a number of chats so are familiar with the pros and cons of signing up to a group. But we must point out that if you do join, your phone number will be visible to everyone in the group.

We look forward to chatting together!

Pauline Wynter
ACT Public Engagement Group PE Co Chair 

Climate Update: Close to the Line

I write regular articles in Reconnect Magazine, here’s one I wrote early last year, and even more pertinent than in 2025….

We are now brushing the 1.5°C threshold. After record-breaking heat in 2024, global temperatures have hovered around that critical Paris Agreement limit—though not yet consistently beyond it. Scientists expect temporary breaches in the coming years, especially with climate patterns like El Niño amplifying warming.

This matters. Not as an abstract number, but as lived stress—on ecosystems, food systems, and communities. The real danger isn’t just heat, but wet-bulb conditions: heat plus humidity, where survival itself becomes difficult.

Many thinkers saw this coming—long before it reached headlines. The question now isn’t if, but how we respond.

From Awareness to Action

The framework is simple:

1. Notice – What’s no longer working? Who and what is being harmed?
2. Imagine – What does a liveable future actually look like?
3. Act – What can we build, protect, and change—starting here?

We already know the tools: reduce, reuse, rethink. But this moment calls for more—community action, creativity, and courage.

Local Futures Matter

Real change is grounded locally. Whether it’s restoring habitats, supporting community events like Turn The Tide (the festival I organise happening on Saturday 23rd May at Dawlish College), or shaping greener towns through planning and design—this is where resilience grows.

Think of it this way: if things worsen, what do we choose to save? A place, a species, a community? Then start there.

Imagination is Infrastructure

We may lack perfect leadership, but we don’t lack imagination. Picture neighbourhoods rich in nature, safe to walk and cycle, powered sustainably, and built for connection.

This transition is already underway. It’s messy, uneven—but real. And it won’t come again in quite this way.

Be Part of It

Plant verges. Join groups. Create spaces. Campaign. Welcome others in. Small acts, multiplied, reshape systems.

We are living through the Anthropocene—but its direction is not fixed.

The future isn’t written yet.

If you’d like to join our Carbon Cutters group email Scott our CC coordinator (scott@actionclimateteignbridge.org)

Scott Williams
ACT CC Coordinator

Tipping Points

My previous newsletter articles have:

• Explained why reducing global carbon emissions is important
• Set out simple things we can do to reduce our personal carbon emissions including home, transport and holiday ideas
• Discussed heat pumps

This month I break from my previous pattern of articles to think about the news.

For 18 years, since Al Gore’s 2006 film “An Inconvenient Truth”, scientists and the press have regularly warned of approaching climate tipping points that, if breached, will lead inevitably to climate breakdown. There is a wider discussion of how society will either function or perhaps break down following climate breakdown.

A tipping point is a critical point beyond which a significant and often unstoppable effect or change takes place.

The media routinely reports impacts of climate change, for example the recent extreme flooding in Florida, North Carolina, Nigeria, Tunisia, Mexico, India, Nepal and Vietnam; and receding glaciers in Norway, the Dolomites and Nepal that have been features of our landscape since the last ice age. Yesterday I was reading about the possible collapse of the Greenland icecap and the resulting seven meters of global sea level rise that may inundate some of the world’s major cities.

s an individual I worry about the impact climate breakdown may have on our children and grandchildren, but most of us struggle to see how we can change the course of events.

Some good news?
Professor Tim Lenton, Director of the Global Systems Institute at the University of Exeter, has identified that “positive tipping points” are happening.

For example, Norway’s dramatic shift to EVs with nearly 80% of new car registrations being electric, and globally, new solar and wind energy supply projects are cheaper than new fossil fuel energy supply projects.

According to a report by Systemiq, positive tipping points could be reached by 2030 in sectors representing 90% of greenhouse gas emissions.
For this to happen we will need a positive policy environment in which solutions are adopted because they are affordable, attractive and accessible. We each have personal power in this.

Paul Bloch
ACT Carbon Cutting Team

Take the Together For Tomorrow Survey

ACT is partnering with CAG Devon and Libraries Unlimited on a new five‑year project funded by the National Lottery that is designed to inspire more people to get involved in climate and nature activities and events in the area.

As part of this work, Libraries Unlimited is launching a survey to hear from people who live and work in Devon — especially those who aren’t currently involved in sustainability projects or events. 

Click here for the survey

We want to understand what kinds of activities appeal to people, what barriers might be stopping them from taking part, and how we can better promote events to reach new audiences.

There’s a £50 voucher up for grabs to encourage members of the public to complete the survey, which closes on 3^rd May 2026.  

Thank you so much for your support. Please note that the survey is relevant to everyone, even if they don’t live anywhere near a library!

Project team
Action on Climate Teignbridge, Together For Tomorrow

Teign School Community Environment Engagement Event

Teign School are excited to be hosting our first environmental film night and fundraiser, supported by the Rotary Club. They hope to see you there!

Teign School says:

Our young people benefit hugely from interactions with people they may not meet in their every day lives. Gaining the knowledge and experience from members of their community helps them to develop life-long skills.

Do you have concerns about the environment and want to help us with ways to develop change within our schools and to support schools with their Climate Action Plans? We would love to hear your ideas.

6pm – 7pm We would like to invite you to Teign School to talk to some of our student leaders and subject ambassadors who are keen to show you their eco initiatives and what actions we are putting in place for them, see what plants are on offer, enjoy some refreshments and maybe try your luck at the raffle.

7pm – 8.30pm Watch Future Council, a film by Damon Gameau (2040, THAT SUGAR FILM) takes eight kids on the ultimate school excursion: a road trip across Europe to challenge powerful leaders and find solutions to our greatest ecological challenges.

8.30pm – 9/9.30pm Question our panel of climate change, sustainability and regeneration experts lead by Education South West Multi Academy Trust’s Sustainability Lead and South West Coordinator for Ministry of Eco Education – Tom Pether

To buy tickets click here

FREE tickets available
via this QR code

Supported by the Rotary Club
and Friends of Teign School

Kate Benham
ACT Director

HVO Heating Oil

On 7th March ACT screened the film “Power to the People” from Cornwall Climate Care. A piece in this film highlights a pilot scheme where use of Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil (HVO) is being trialled instead of Kerosene for heating on oil boilers in 150 houses in Kehelland, Cornwall. This Devon Live advertorial highlights how the supplier is now seeking to expand this service to Cornwall, Devon and Somerset. So it would appear that there is now adequate supply of HVO in Devon. 

How is HVO produced

HVO can be made from a variety of feed stocks including used cooking oil, animal fat, technical corn oil, Tall oil pitch, residues from vegetable oil processing. the feedstock is treated with hydrogen at high temperatures (280–450°C) and high pressure (10–50 times normal atmospheric pressure). This process, called hydrotreatment, removes impurities and converts the oil into a clean, renewable fuel that works just like heating oil — but with far lower carbon emissions.

Emissions from HVO production depend on the fuel stock used and the source of hydrogen.

Where does the hydrogen come from

Blue hydrogen is derived by steam reforming of gas, which has higher emissions than green hydrogen, which is formed by electrolysis of water. Green hydrogen is cleaner than blue hydrogen but more expensive to produce.

HVO Properties and uses

HVO is cleaner than heating oil as shown in the following table:

If you were to use the same HVO in a diesel engine its NO₂ would be higher.

Stable drop in replacement

As well as heating oil, its unique chemical properties mean that it can be used as both diesel and with slight modification even as aviation fuel. It similar density means it delivers the same output per litre as heating oil, so there is no need for larger tanks or more frequent deliveries.:

Unlike Fatty Acid Methyl Esters(FAME) commonly called biodiesel, HVO doesn’t degrade, absorb water, or support microbial growth in tanks. This makes it ideal for long-term storage in home heating systems.

In many cases an existing boiler can be used with just the fuel being replaced, in other cases filters, jets and tanks might need replacing or cleaning, at an estimated cost no more that £500 from experience with the Kelland trial.

Supply

HVO is produced from UK refineries, but most production (784 million litres 2024) is for transport (road, air and sea) usage.

Most supply for heating oil is a blend with some HVO,though a trial has been done with 150 houses, which has proved feasibility and the necessary modifications.

There was a scandal in 2024 where it was suspected that palm oil was used as feedstock, since then at least one supplier of HVO heating oil has certified that they only use waste cooking oil. Clearly it is much better that waste oil is used, than oil derived directly from plants, both from a carbon footprint point of view and to avoid using edible crop bearing land for other usesTo produce HVO, The feedstock used for HVO is reported under the Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation (RTFO), the latest report being for 2024.This shows overall production for 2024 of 800 Million litres of HVO across all uses.

Recycling

Waste oil must be collected by a licenced oil collection facility, who collect waste oil from commercial premises, and supply it to a refinery. Waste oil goes to refineries like Phillips 66 (Humber), Essar (Stanlow) or Neste (Rotterdam). As waste oil as a feedstock has a lower carbon footprint, sending waste oil to a collector provides a ready recycling route that avoid other means of disposal that are more environmentally damaging, and would save agricultural land being used  growing feedstock. According to the RTFO report for 2024 most HVO is produced from waste cooking oil.

Demand

I haven’t been able to find a government statistic for the amount of heating oil consumed, so have to resort to an estimate which for now is quite crude.

According to Census 2021 there were 865,940 homes that relied on oil heating in 2021. If these were to use an average of 2000 Litres each, that would give a total demand of about 1.7billion litres of heating oil per year.

This would exceed current production by a considerable amount, before any transport use is considered. Since the supply of used cooking oil is limited, it is likely that any expansion of supply would not use waste products and would therefore compete for land use with agricultural crops.

Cost and Taxation

Recently HVO has cost between £1.20/litre to £1.60/litre whereas heating oil costs between 60 and 80p/litre. This difference could partially be explained by excise duty. Currently HVO costs between.

Following the US war on Iran and inevitable oil price rise, the government announced a price cap for domestic electricity and gas, and has now followed this with a £53m support for households affected by domestic heating oil prices, but surprisingly no corresponding support to encourage the use of alternatives to fossil fuels for heating such as HVO.

According to the Future Fuel Oils Campaign HVO still attracts the same level of excise duty as diesel, as well as VAT. Whilst other uses of HVO for transport are subject to Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation (RTFO) exemption from duty, HVO used as heating oil has no such subsidy.

The government ran a consultation which finished on 10th February , but this anomaly wasn’t mentioned. 

The Future Fuel Oils campaign claims that HVO has 88% fewer CO₂ emissions rather fossil fuel heating oil and can run in an existing boiler with possibly small modifications costing in the order of £500. If supplies are available now this seems to be a low-carbon substitute when installing a heat-pump is not yet practical. 

Currently the cost of HVO for heating oil is significantly higher than ordinary heating oil, this is likely to act as a deterrent.

The government could equalise the duty and VAT on HVO to level the playing field at least whilst taking action of the effects of raised oil prices pending the outcome of the consultation.

Conclusion

Initially HVO looked an attractive alternative to replacing an oil boiler with a heat-pump, but analysis of supply and demand shows that this is not feasible for the majority of cases, even if the tax disadvantages were to be removed.

Most houses would be better off with a heat pump.

Further reading

Here are a few articles that give further reading:

Why rural properties in the UK should have the option to switch to HVO from kerosene
What is HVO and can it be used to fuel heating oil homes
How HVO Fuel is Made and How It Reduces CO₂ Output
Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation (RTFO) statistics 2024: Final report
Future Fuel Oils Campaign
HMRC – Excise Duty hydrocarbon oils rates Updated 15 May 2024
HMRC – when reduced rate of VAT applies to fuel supplies
Kehelland MP Visit

Julian Stringer
ACT