Brentwood Climate Action

Category: Climate Emergency

  • Climate Café® Brentwood launches July 26

    Climate Café® Brentwood launches July 26

    A welcoming new monthly space for everyone in Brentwood to get together and discuss climate and environmental issues, Climate Café® Brentwood, is launching in the town centre at the end of the month.

    The first of regular monthly openings of Climate Café® Brentwood will take place on July 26, being organised by the town’s Brentwood Climate Action group – providing a relaxed and informal drop-in venue for anyone interested to have a chat with likeminded people.

    The Cafe will take place in the community hub at 7 Crown Street, and the launch event coincides with the Summer Party taking place on the vibrant Brentwood shopping street that day. All are welcome, of any age, to stay for as little or long as they like. The Cafe will run in two sessions, from 9.30-11am; then later from 12-1.30pm.

    It is a Bring Your Own Drink event due to numbers expected, and there are two nearby cafes – Hey Joe and Chantilly – happy to supply refreshments, as well as those on the High Street. Or you are free to bring your own drinks and snacks from home!

    Families are encouraged to pop in, as there will be a themed drawing space, colouring equipment, as well as pens and paper for visitors to jot down their thoughts and suggestions for future Cafes.

    Climate Café® is a community movement that began in rural Scotland in 2015, now with sister Cafés all around the world – all affording an inclusive space where everyone is welcome to join the climate conversation and get involved. All the chat and any action is led by those who live, work and play in that community.

    Katherine Anderson, Brentwood Climate Action’s Chair, said: “We’re delighted to be launching Climate Café® Brentwood, a safe space to get together with people from across the community to Drink, Chat and Act on Climate.

    “It’s free and open for all to attend, and I’m sure it will provide a positive and inspiring opportunity for the people of Brentwood to talk and listen about issues that matter to them, hopefully coming back on a monthly basis!”

    Climate Café® Brentwood will take place at 7 Crown Street on the last Saturday of every month through to the end of the year. The next date is confirmed for August 30.

    Brentwood Climate Action is the only Borough-based group campaigning for climate action; a totally volunteer-run and non-political group, funded purely by member and public donations. The BCA ethos is founded on engagement with a wide range of people across all environmental, cultural, faith, community and political groups.

  • Brentwood Climate Action reboot Oct 20th

    Brentwood Climate Action reboot Oct 20th

    To all Brentwood Climate Action members from Susan Kortlandt, Chair, BCA – October 2023

    Dear member,

    It’s been a while since we last met and indeed took action in this group.

    Nevertheless, the need for the group is perhaps just as strong as ever and we should be encouraged by the actions we took over the last two years, which have included a schools conference, a stand at Strawberry Fair, a litter pick and some enjoyable meetings to exchange thoughts.

    The steering group continues to meet and is looking forward to organising another schools conference and planning further action over the next year. Several members have asked whether it is a good time to revive our group and also to celebrate the declaration of a Climate Emergency by the current Brentwood Borough Council – something we called for two years ago.

    Personally, I have decided to step down as chair and realised the constitution we started with makes no provision for this, so I propose we change it and elect a new chair at our next meeting. I have attached a new constitution below and highlighted in red the changes proposed.

    So I invite you to meet to do this at 7pm on Friday October 20th at the Chicken and Frog Bookshop, 30 Crown St, Brentwood, CM14 4BA.

    Please email us at info@brentwoodclimateaction.org.uk to confirm your attendance.

    Best wishes,

    Sue

    Brentwood Climate Action – proposed amended Constitution, 2023

  • Our plans for Great Big Green Week need your help

    Our plans for Great Big Green Week need your help

    Brentwood Climate Action is planning to fully embrace this year’s Great Big Green Week in the autumn – with an outline of events we could run agreed at this week’s BCA Steering Group meeting.

    For those that don’t know, the Great Big Green Week is the UK’s biggest ever celebration of community action to tackle climate change and protect nature. Between September 24 and October 2 this year, Great Big Green Week will unleash a wave of support for action to protect the planet. Tens of thousands of people in every corner of the country will celebrate the heartfelt, brave, everyday actions being taken to stand up for nature and fight climate change.

    Together we can show decision makers that people from all walks of life are stepping up to take action on climate change – and we need them to step up too. Last year over 5000 events took place, with more than 200,000 people showing up for the planet in their community and online.

    So it is definitely something that Brentwood should be participating in. And we need your help – Brentwood Climate Action members, and anyone interested in solutions to the Climate Emergency and nature crisis we face in this country and around the world – to make it happen.

    Ideas currently being worked on are:

    • Holding a Climate Cafe in the Brentwood Borough area – potentially in Ingatestone, and maybe elsewhere if we can find suitable venues. If you’re not familiar with the concept, a Climate Cafe is a space for people to get together to talk and act on climate change and related issues. Climate Cafes are informal, inclusive spaces where everyone is welcome to join the conversation and get involved
    • Litter Pick – building on successful BCA ones held previously in the spring and at the Strawberry Fair… for as many people in the local community to come and join us as possible and take very simple but effective environmental action
    • Green Book Club – hopefully we can stage an event at a local bookshop, giving attendees the chance to get together to talk about, and buy, the latest and best books on climate change, the environment, and the natural world
    • A climate change Board Games event – with a variety of environment-themed games available for all to play, giving us a fundraising opportunity and a chance for BCA members to come together for an enjoyable social gathering
    • Creating information leaflets on key climate, green energy and nature issues that would be available at our events during Great Big Green Week and thereafter

    We’d like to stage these events during the week, and maybe more, but we can’t without more volunteers coming forward to help organise them and run them on the agreed dates.

    So please get in touch with us at info@brentwoodclimateaction.org.uk

    Or via our Contacts page, or our social media channels – Facebook, Twitter, Instagram – to let us know how you’d like to get involved before and during Great Big Green Week.

    The sooner we can confirm all our plans and dates/venues the sooner we can publicise all the events – and get as many people joining in with Great Big Green Week across the Borough as possible.

  • Join us on Shenfield Common for July 21 meeting

    Join us on Shenfield Common for July 21 meeting

    Our next Brentwood Climate Action meeting on Thursday July 21 has been switched to Shenfield Common – to allow for a more social and engaging gathering, with a focus on the new draft Environment Strategy published by Brentwood Borough Council.

    Our latest Steering Group meeting last week agreed that an outdoor meeting on the Common (from 7pm onwards) would allow our growing Membership to get to know each other better.

    And we will use the launch of the Council’s consultation on their Environment Strategy this past week as a focal point to discuss future BCA actions, that we all agree should be taken over the coming months.

    Ahead of the meeting please go to the Council website at https://www.brentwood.gov.uk/w/environment-strategy-consultation where you can download the Environment Strategy to read in full. And you can also take part in their consultation surveys from there: for the general public, young people, and businesses.

    Steering Group members will be on the Common setting up from 6pm, ready to welcome members from 7pm. And Members are invited to bring drinks and snacks, and blankets/chairs for outdoors seating as required!

    We’ll bring along clip boards and pens and the necessary materials to allow us to run feedback sessions, and gather everyone’s comments for a potential overall Brentwood Climate Action response to the Strategy.

    So please turn up in your numbers, and with lots of thoughts and ideas on how we should respond to the Strategy, and tackle the critical climate emergency and environmental issues facing Brentwood over the coming years.

    We will also be looking at our various Action Groups and how we can improve their running and output. And we’ll be looking ahead to the Great Big Green Week at the end of September, and what sort of events we could run then to engage the wider Brentwood community in climate action.

    So if you fancy getting more involved on any front, please come along on July 21 ready to put your hand up and volunteer, at whatever level of commitment suits you.

    Other updates from the Steering Group meeting included the decision to postpone the second planned Schools Climate Change Conference, scheduled for last month, until October 28 at St Martin’s School. And we reflected on the success of our stall at the Strawberry Fair – run jointly with Brentwood Fair Trade; although we agreed it would have been nice to see more BCA Members there on the day, to say hello and help out.

    Without BCA Members getting involved we will find it harder to follow through on the Climate Action plans you want to see for Brentwood.

    So please do take this opportunity to come along and take part in the discussions on July 21. We look forward to seeing everyone then!

  • What to make of the latest IPCC report

    What to make of the latest IPCC report

    This week the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) launched their latest global report on the climate crisis. It makes for an emotional read.

    You can read and download it in full on the IPCC website.

    The report concludes that the world is facing devastating and cascading risks from a worsening climate crisis. We can expect increasing threats to food and nature, more harm from extreme weather, and higher risks of “tipping points” which cannot be reversed.

    Scientists warn that we have already seen some extreme climate events and conditions not projected to take place until 2100.

    But the report also tells us one important message – this is far from game over. Solutions to the climate crisis already exist. We have the opportunity to not only halt global temperature rises, but also to build a future that is fairer, safer and healthier for all. 

    So, while it’s critical that we share the truth with our networks here through Brentwood Climate Action – it’s also vital that we give people hope. We must use moments like these to show people that a different future is possible – and give them an opportunity to join our fight for climate action.  

    Our colleagues at Friends of the Earth have put together a summary of the report, with key messages to share with our networks via email and social media, and quotes from our climate activist friends around the world.

    But here are some of their key takeaways:

    Extreme events

    We have already seen some extreme climate events and conditions not projected to take place until 2100. These are projected to increase in magnitude and frequency. Such heatwaves, droughts, floods, storms, and fires will result in “compound and cascading” effects on agriculture, water resources, lives, livelihoods and infrastructure. Since 2008, 20 million people have been internally displaced by extreme weather events per year.   

    Sea-level rise

    By 2050, it is predicted that more than 1 billion people living in coastal areas will be at risk from the dangers of sea-level rise. That means one in ten people on the planet will be directly impacted.  

    Tipping points

    If global temperatures increase by more than 1.5 degrees, even if the temperature is brought back down subsequently, there is a severe risk of breaching “tipping points” which we cannot be reversed, including the release of carbon stored in peatlands, forests and permafrost.  

    Vulnerability

    Over 40 per cent of people (3.3-3.6 billion people) live in highly climate-vulnerable countries. Almost all of these people live in the Global South. Vulnerability to the crisis is shaped by processes of marginalisation, such as gender, Indigenous identity, health, and poverty, according to the report. Women, the elderly and children in low-income households, Indigenous Peoples and minority groups, small-scale producers and fishing communities are most at risk of impacts such as food insecurity.  

    Ecosystems and biodiversity

    We are witnessing the first climate-driven extinctions. In biodiversity hotspots, 24 per cent of species will be at very high extinction risk at 1.5 degrees of heating. For endemic species, this could raise to 84 per cent of species at very high risk of extinction in mountain regions, and 100 per cent of species on islands.   

    Food and water

    Hundreds of millions of people, especially in Africa, Asia, Small Islands, Central and South America, and the Arctic are being impacted by stresses on food systems. 10 per cent of current livestock and crop areas may become unsuitable by 2050, rising to 30 per cent by 2100.   

    However, while there is no escaping the seriousness of the report findings, it is far from “game over”. The report concludes that there exist realistic solutions, and that they must be equitable and based on the principles of climate justice.  

    Friends of the Earth globally, and us here at a local level in Brentwood, have a vision for a future that is safer, more just, and sustainable, and that vision is still within reach. 

    What’s our response?

    “Climate reports are plentiful, and this is yet another report that says the planet is changing even faster than predicted. This means lives are being endangered and lost today, not in a distant future. 

    “The time for reality checks is long gone: we have the answers and means to step back from the brink of climate catastrophe. It starts with an immediate end to the age of fossil fuels and ramping up the shift to renewable energy with all of the governmental support to see that crucial transition through.” Rachel Kennerley, International Climate Campaigner, Friends of the Earth.  

    What can I do right now?

    Come and join us at Brentwood Climate Action.

    We have our next meeting lined up for later this month where all are welcome – and you can join for free as a Member, and get on our mailing list for all future information.

    And you might want to take some Action right now – by signing our petition to call on Brentwood Borough Council to declare a Climate Emergency.

     

     

  • March 24 set for first 2022 meeting

    March 24 set for first 2022 meeting

    Here’s a date to mark in your diary straight away – to make sure you don’t miss the first monthly Brentwood Climate Action meeting of 2022…. March 24, from 7.30pm.

    Join us for our first get together of the new year – being held at Chicken & Frog bookshop in Crown Street, Brentwood… and hybrid online via Zoom (the meeting link will be emailed to members beforehand).

    It will give you the chance to catch up on the latest Brentwood Climate Action news, and updates from the Steering Group meetings held to date in 2022.

    And to hear what’s been going on in our various Action Groups – as well as get the chance to meet and chat with likeminded people concerned about the climate emergency and environment in Brentwood, and join in with our future Action plans!

    If you are not on our emailing list then please do sign up as a Member today to make sure you receive details of this and all our other important updates!

    And if you are active on Facebook you might want to show your interest in attending on our Page on there too – and sharing the details with your own networks.

    We’ll be finalising the agenda over the coming weeks, but items likely to feature include:

    • Our plans for a second Brentwood Schools Conference this spring
    • How best Brentwood Climate Action can take part in the Great British Spring Clean organised by Keep Britain Tidy through March and April
    • Engaging with Brentwood Borough Council on their climate action plan drafting, and their newly published Environment Strategy 2022-25, which is due to go out for public consultation
  • Top ten Brentwood Climate Action achievements of 2021

    Top ten Brentwood Climate Action achievements of 2021

    As we head into what we hope will be a landmark year for Climate Action in Brentwood, let’s take a minute to look back on the major achievements of Brentwood Climate Action since our group was formed in late summer of 2021.

    In no particular order, here’s our Top Ten of Actions taken so far:

    1. We held our first Schools Conference at Anglo European School in Ingatestone in November, as part of our Action around the COP26 climate conference in Glasgow – with more than 50 sixth formers from four schools across the Borough attending and taking part in educational activities related to COP26 and the Climate Emergency generally.
    1. We had a successful presence on both Brentwood and Ingatestone high streets to mark the COP26 Global Day of Action. Brentwood Climate Action members spent the day talking to members of the public to raise awareness of COP26 and the Climate Emergency, and promote the ongoing work of our group and how it can make a difference locally.
    1. We’ve been making contact with Brentwood Borough Council officials and administration Councillors – who have indicated a willingness to engage with us around climate and environmental issues on an ongoing basis – and also asked questions at Brentwood Borough Council meetings; as part of our lobbying process moving forward in 2022.
    1. We held our kickstart meeting back in the summer, as more than 40 people took part in the first meeting held at Chicken and Frog bookshop in Crown Street, and online via Zoom, on Thursday August 12. The meeting elected a Steering Group, agreed a constitution, as well as a vision and aims for Brentwood Climate Action.
    1. The number of activists / members of Brentwood Climate Action has climbed well over 100 in just four months. You can sign up here.
    1. Despite the ongoing issues with the Covid pandemic, we’ve managed to hold four monthly members meetings, at a variety of venues across the Borough and hybrid online via Zoom. The guest speaker at our November meeting was Ottilie West, the new Climate and Sustainability Officer at Brentwood Borough Council.
    1. As part of the ongoing administration carried out by your volunteer Steering Group, we’ve set up a bank account and started to look at potential funding sources to enable us to operate effectively in 2022 and beyond.
    1. We set up this website and social media channels on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram from scratch – which have seen us gather hundreds of followers in quick time. And we’ve also set up a Membership database and been sending out regular emailings to our signed up activists.
    1. We launched a Petition calling on Brentwood Council to declare a Climate Emergency, and publish an ambitious Climate Action Plan – which has had more than 100 signatures online, and more than double that offline at our COP26 Global Day of Action stalls.
    1. We conducted a members skills audit, which allowed us to set up seven diverse Action Groups – such as Lobbying, Environmental, Funding, Wellbeing, and Education – which we hope will provide the focus for a lot of what will do during this year.
  • Council pledges Sustainability Strategy publication in 2022

    Council pledges Sustainability Strategy publication in 2022

    Brentwood Climate Action was pleased to hear recent pledges from Brentwood Borough Council Leader, Cllr Chris Hossack, that the planned Sustainability Strategy will be published in 2022 and include carbon reduction targets and objectives for the authority.

    Cllr Hossack was responding to questions from BCA chair Susan Kortlandt at last week’s Ordinary Meeting of the Council, where she asked:

    1. What is the total carbon footprint of Brentwood Council from all its current operations, including housing, offices and works?

    2. I note that the Council is preparing an Environmental Strategy aimed at taking the ‘Council and the Borough’ towards Zero Carbon 2040. How will you ensure that progress is being made? Will there be intermediate targets, scrutiny and control measures? By when do you intend the Council’s own operations to be carbon neutral?

    In reply to the first question, Cllr Hossack said: “It’s not an insignificant task to baseline the carbon footprint of all of our operations – probably as an organisation, as an employer in Brentwood, the largest task of any organisation in Brentwood actually.

    “Our newly appointed Climate and Sustainability Officer is undertaking this baselining exercise. We’re bringing together the information on the carbon footprint, and it will form part of the baseline that our performance will be measured against moving forward.”

    Liberal Democrat opposition Leader, Cllr Barry Aspinell, added: “I welcome the question and I hope whatever detail we get back includes our Council housing, which is considerable, and every other detail; and I look forward to it when it comes to us.”

    And Labour Leader, Cllr Gareth Barrett, pointed to previous work done by other local authorities: “I think Cllr Hossack is right, it is a big piece of work, but there are several London Boroughs and Councils in the east of England that have already done this equation, with summaries we’ll be able to work from. There is a carbon workbook for local authorities that again we can work from.

    “It’s also not necessarily our emissions day to day, but how much carbon when we’re building new things – the laying of concrete is one of the most carbon intensive things you can do. As a Council we have to think how we can net off or produce alternatives to reduce those emissions as we develop.”

    Cllr Hossack confirmed that Brentwood residents could look forward to the Sustainability Strategy in 2022 in his answer to the second question, explaining: “The strategy that’s being created will be published next year and will identify where we want to be as an authority, and by when. The strategy will lead to clear targets and objectives identifying appropriate areas of work the Council should concentrate on that will create most reward in this sector.

    “In doing so, measures will be put into place with the mechanism to record and publish achievements against the targets. The Strategy will also seek to identify when the Council will become carbon neutral and the measures and steps the Council will need to take to achieve that objective.

    “The Council has set an overall aim to be carbon neutral by 2040. Once a baseline has been established a more specific target can be set.”

    Cllr Aspinell pointed to the need to consider ongoing housing development, saying: “We should also be looking at our Local Development Plan and, where it is possible, adding in to that that no building should be built unless they are carbon neutral on any of the sites that this Council has identified for building.”

    Cllr Barrett suggested that any such climate action plan would require highly visible monitoring: “Scrutiny-wise, this needs to become a key scheme of work for the Audit and Scrutiny Committee. If progress is to be made it needs to be made sure that it isn’t a greenwashing exercise.

    “In terms of intermediate targets, when we look at other large-scale organisations when they start their carbon programme, we have a net zero target the Council has set of 2040 – I still think it can be more ambitious and a 2030 target is more than viable – but to the same extent what most large organisations find is that the first 50 per cent is the low hanging fruit that can be achieved rather rapidly. The first five-year ambition is the important one; and then it gets progressively harder unfortunately, but if we set a big ambition to hit early on then I think that’s a viable and sensible plan to have.

    “And that level of ambition also sets a mark in the sand that we can be marked against rather than a long-term 2040 target which we’re reliant on new technologies to appear. Actually what we can do now can probably get us half way – let’s set that ambition, and let’s make it.”

    Brentwood Climate Action members will be bringing forward suggestions for inclusion in the Council’s climate action plan, and actively engaging in all available avenues for consultation – as well as continuing to press for the Council to recognise the seriousness of the situation and declare a climate emergency.

    You can watch the full recording of the Council meeting – with this relevant Q&A section starting from 30:00.

  • Questions asked of Brentwood Council

    Questions asked of Brentwood Council

    Brentwood Climate Action chair, Susan Kortlandt, is asking two questions of Brentwood Borough Council at their full Council Meeting tomorrow evening

    1. What is the total carbon footprint of Brentwood Council from all its current operations, including housing, offices and works?

    2. I note that the Council is preparing an Environmental Strategy aimed at taking the “Council and the Borough” towards Zero Carbon 2040”. How will you ensure that progress is being made? Will there be intermediate targets, scrutiny and control measures? By when do you intend the Council’s own operations to be carbon neutral?

    You can see the questions on the Council’s website at:

    https://brentwood.moderngov.co.uk/documents/s21511/Public%20Questions%20report%20-%208.12.2021.pdf

    And you can see the full Agenda for the meeting, and also follow the Live Broadcast, at:

    https://brentwood.moderngov.co.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=128&MID=2249#AI9189

    We’ll update with how the Council responded after the meeting.

  • Council’s Ottilie West presents to November meeting

    Council’s Ottilie West presents to November meeting

    The guest speaker at our November monthly members meeting was Ottilie West, the new Climate and Sustainability Officer at Brentwood Borough Council.

    Ottilie joined the hybrid meeting like others via Zoom, while there was also a packed meeting room for those attending the November 23 session in-person at Chicken and Frog bookshop in Brentwood.

    Ottilie’s presentation (which you can download below) covered her priorities in her role at the Council – the main one of which is “Creating a Strategy to reduce the carbon footprint and improve the overall sustainability of Brentwood Borough”.

    She outlined further detail on ‘The Sustainability Strategy’, which she explained is being created to “identify the actions required to meet the Council’s aim of becoming carbon neutral by 2040”.

    She also covered BEBA, the new Brentwood Environmental Business Alliance, and ways in which Brentwood Climate Action might be able to work with the Council moving forward.

    Download Ottilie’s presentation as either a PowerPoint or a PDF file below:

    The meeting – to which we also welcomed Council Leader, Cllr Chris Hossack, at the start via Zoom – also heard updates from all our seven Action groups. These included reports on the recent COP26 Global Day of Action activity in Brentwood and Ingatestone high streets which gathered hundreds of signatures for our petition, and the Schools Conference held at the Anglo European School.

    There will be no monthly meeting at the end of December as we take a break during the Christmas period. The aim is to return on a monthly basis back at Chicken & Frog Bookshop (and also still by Zoom) from the latter half of January. A poll for meeting dates and times will be distributed to the membership to help us finalise a first date.