Our July Newsletter is now hot off the press covering the following topics:
The latest Newsletter is now available with a plethora of information and items on the following topics :
Membership tidy up.
Great Big Green Week 18-26 September 2021.
Teignbridge District Council’s Local Plan – Part 2.
G7 Protesters are just ordinary people.
Teign Estuary Trail.
The Climate and Ecological Emergency Bill – updated.
Jessie’s cycle challenge to COP26.
The Climate Change Committee – “Mitigation and Adaptation”.
Rivercide documentary 14 July 2021.
Wales freezes all new road building projects.
Our latest Newsletter is ready and waiting covering the following topics:
How about an Electric Car and Bike Club in Teignmouth? – Including a survey to be completed by 26 May.
No mow May.
Six months to COP26 – what are the issues?
Support the Climate and Ecological Emergency Bill – and ask your MP to do the same.
Sale of peat to be banned in 2024.
Greta Thunberg – A Year to Change The World.
The Councillors’ workbook on the local pathway to net zero.
When Greta Thunberg met Sir David Attenborough, as shown on BBC TV recently, she asked him what he would say to young people who think there is no point in saying or doing anything about climate change because no one is listening. He replied that people are listening. “There just could be a change in moral attitude from people and politicians worldwide to see that self interest is for the past, common interest is for the future,” he said.
We all have a common interest in cutting carbon emissions and trying to keep global warming to no more than 1.5C above pre-industrial averages. But we often let our self interest stand in the way. Making that extra effort to change our behaviour can be a struggle, especially when our institutions and infrastructure fail to support our efforts
It is easy to take the view that any changes we make, whether becoming vegetarian, giving up flying, or driving less, will make little difference, so why bother.
Or there is the hope some new technology will provide the solution, and we can carry on consuming without a worry. Nuclear fusion will prove possible after all, or we will be able to suck carbon out the air and store it somewhere. We are an endlessly inventive species so surely some tech whiz will find a way.
Both those ideas are comfort blankets we need to discard. It is true that unless you are one of the super wealthy your actions won’t make much direct difference. Reports show that the world’s richest 1% produce more than double the combined emissions of the poorest 50%. They need to make the biggest changes to their lifestyles.
If the richest 10% brought their emissions in line with the level of the average European, and the rest of us carried on as normal, global carbon emissions would drop by one-third within a couple of years, notes a report by the Cambridge Sustainability Commission.
The changes we make are just as important though. A one-third reduction in emissions is not enough. The more people who put solar panels on their roofs, insulate their homes, cut down on meat, and adopt active travel (by bike or foot), the quicker it will come to seem the normal thing to do. And once we’ve made one little change it becomes easier to make others. Of course, we need the help of the government and other institutions to make these changes, particularly where cost is a barrier. But don’t underestimate the power of individual example.
When it comes to technology, there is no doubt it can and will help. But our inventiveness has failed so far to stop emissions rising. Researchers from Lancaster University last year said climate action had been delayed for 40 years by technological promises. They called for an end to such promises and said the focus should switch to cultural, social and political transformation to tackle the climate crisis. That’s us and our communities!
The experience of the last year has shown that rapid transformation is possible. Our behaviour changed almost overnight as we went into lockdown. The vast majority of us complied with the new rules as the threat to our health was immediate and obvious. We have also participated willingly in the great vaccination experiment. We are effectively all guinea pigs, but recognise that our common interest lies in having the jab.
There is a consensus we need to Build Back Better as the pandemic subsides (fingers crossed!). That must mean prioritising actions to address the climate and ecological emergencies we face. In Teignbridge, 23 of the 50 town and parish councils, as well as the district council, have declared emergencies. Only a few have progressed to making an action plan or have consulted their communities on what they can do together. Action on Climate in Teignbridge is working with councils across the area to advise and support them. We have also recruited 64 volunteer wildlife wardens across 32 parishes, who will work to help local wildlife survive and thrive.
Every little helps, and there is often a positive benefit from such action to our own wellbeing as well as our environment.
“We have to make major changes to the way we live,” Sir David told Greta. It’s in our common interest.
Our latest newsletter is now ready, covering; last week’s Members’ Forum – how you can help us – the benefits of visiting the websites, the mysteries of the “Net” in Net Zero – Devon CC’s Waste Management consultation and the Netflix documentary “Seaspiracy”.
Dear fellow climate champions
ACT is planning its strategy over the next 6 months and could really do with some help. We are looking for a few extra people to help out for perhaps an hour or two a week with either committee or hands-on work.
You don’t have to be an expert in anything; what we need is your enthusiasm so, if you’d like to get involved, please fill in this questionnaire with some information about your interests and skills and we will get back to you.
Many thanks
Our latest newsletter is now available covering next month’s members’ forum, help needed with our work with town & parish councils, the economics of biodiversity, the Interim Devon Plan, Bill Gates and his new book, TDC’s progress with the climate & ecological emergencies and the almost failed Green Homes Grant scheme.
If you are a signed up member and didn’t receive the newsletter on email let Paul know otherwise view the newsletter here.
The green homes grant scheme caught my attention as soon as it was launched in September 2020. It looked worth investigating, but my attempt to use it soon came up against obstacles. It proved difficult to find either independent advice on the most important and appropriate improvements to my home, or an installer authorised to do whatever work was needed.
Hearing that there are now authorised installers and assessors in the area, I have just tried to re-engage with the scheme. It proved frustrating.
The grant covers up to two-thirds of the cost of energy efficiency improvements you make to your home, to a maximum of £5,000 (or 100% of the cost up to £10,000 if you qualify for the low income support scheme). So it’s financially attractive (although recent stories in the Guardian show there are long delays in giving out grants and money is being withdrawn).
The biggest weakness in the scheme, and why I consider it not fit for purpose, is that eligibility is not dependent on any sort of whole house assessment. Moreover, it enables, if not encourages, you to fit a new more energy efficient source of heating, at a cost of maybe £10,000, when your home insulation remains inadequate or even non-existent, which is like putting new taps on a bath without a plug.
However, if you know which of the eligible improvements your home needs, the scheme could work for you. It is currently set to run until 31st March 2022. Here’s how it went for me.
The grant scheme’s website suggests you seek advice on the improvements to make. However, when you follow the link to check your eligibility you are sent to the Simple Energy Advice (SEA) website to check out the sort of improvements that might be suitable, based partly on the Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) registered for your property.
After several pages of questions and, in my case increasing confusion, you are presented with a “Now build your plan” page with suggested improvements and the likely costs. You select the improvements that take your fancy and are then taken to a “Make your plan” page enabling you to download the details to present to your installer(s).
Whether I’m just unlucky, or too picky, this process didn’t work for me. For example, you are asked what type of roof insulation you have, either pitched or flat roof, insulated or not insulated, or don’t know. I have both types of roof but as the pitched roof covers the majority of the home and is insulated I chose that option.
My EPC tells me that, at 100mm, my insulation is insufficient and that it should be increased to 270mm, but by selecting the insulated option, roof insulation doesn’t appear on my plan.
Similarly, with the wall insulation question, you are asked if you have cavity or solid walls, insulated or not insulated or don’t know. I have a couple of solid walls but the majority are cavity, but the EPC is silent on whether or not they are insulated and so I chose “don’t know”. This only put cavity wall insulation into my plan, with no mention of solid wall insulation, but it’s pointless having it in the plan as I don’t know if I need it.
My hopes for floor insulation were also soon dashed. Options for answers to “What sort of floor insulation do you have?” were: don’t know, solid floor, suspended floor or none. I have a suspended floor with no insulation, so selected “none” but, mysteriously, was only presented with solid floor insulation in my plan, at a cost of £5,000.
Finally, but not exhaustively, the plan suggested a new condensing boiler (when I said I already had one) and upgrading my double glazing, neither of which qualify for the grant.
If and when you are lucky enough to be happy with your plan, you are directed to the SEA site to find an authorised installer for each of the 30 eligible improvements. In other words, you have to choose a home improvement measure before being shown appropriate installers.
It doesn’t, however, offer you authorised advisors to help you decide what sort of insulation or heating improvement you need and in what order. For this I referred to the Trustmark website, where all authorised people are registered, and where you can search in your area for retrofit assessors or coordinators under standard PAS 2035.
So, in my case, “The Plan” is to contact one of these to help work out what is best for my home and the planet, regardless of whether the green homes grant should play a part.
As the first in what we hope will be a series, we are running the above online Zoom event to cover some of the issues, relating to the climate and ecological emergencies, which are important to our members.
We want to attract as many members as possible and to get the ball rolling would ask you to complete this questionnaire to suggest topics we should cover, in the form of questions.
You’ll see we have suggested a few questions of our own that you can score and then you can add up to five of your own, in order of importance, along with any other ideas you may have.
Based on your responses we will select questions for this first forum for a panel discussion and will also give you the opportunity to participate in a question and answer “chat” session.
If you can’t make it, don’t worry, we will record the session and no doubt follow it up with others.
Hope you can join us.
The consultation on the Interim Devon Carbon Plan closes on 15th February, writes John Watson. Please take the time to comment on the plan. In particular, tell the Devon Climate Emergency partnership (DCE) that a target date of 2050 for achieving carbon neutrality is much too late.
The plan, put together by a specialist task force set up by DCE, describes what has to be done to reach net zero carbon emissions by 2050, and looks at the opportunities and challenges and what the costs will be.
Many of the changes proposed by the plan are far reaching, but they will improve our health and wellbeing as well as our environment, and make the world a safer place for our children and grandchildren by avoiding runaway climate change. There is little in the plan to disagree with.
My main concern is to bring the target date forward. If we aim for 2050, we will produce way too many emissions in the intervening years and make the task all but impossible. The plan has had to be based on the government’s 2050 target for net zero, but that target is likely to be made more ambitious. As many highly respected national and international scientific bodies have pointed out, we need to aim for net zero by 2030.
The Interim Devon Carbon Plan itself is supportive of an earlier target, and encourages “all Devon-based organisations to become net-zero by 2030, including their supply chains”. It also “strongly encourage[s] national government to bring forward the net-zero carbon date for the UK”.
It is perhaps not surprising that one of the questions in the consultation is about the target date, particularly as many of the local authorities collaborating under the DCE partnership have set target dates significantly earlier than 2050.
The task force that drew up the plan is composed of academics, business people and individuals. They have taken evidence from many sources so far and have consulted younger people via a youth parliament. In the lead up to the draft final plan later this year there will be a citizen’s assembly and further consultation.
The task force is a sub-group of the DCE, which is a partnership, established in May 2019, between local councils, environmental groups, health bodies, utility operators, and organisations such as the Met Office and the NFU.
I have already made my comments on the plan. I hope you will too. It’s an important opportunity for local residents to have a say in the future of their local area.
