10:30am – 13:30pm at 7 Crown St, Brentwood CM14 4BA
Speakers – Cliff Roney & Philip Holland – ‘Are we drinking from the last-chance lagoon?’
Category: Nature Environment
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Earth Day Gala Evening Wednesday 22 April 2026
We would like to say a BIG THANK YOU to all who performed, to all those behind the scenes and to all who came to witness our biggest and most ambitious event yet and also, to be a part of Earth Day 2026: a worldwide initiative to raise awareness of the realisation that our world – our only world – is so fragile and in deep need of our help.
However, none of this would have even been possible without the vision, courage and dedication of Meryl, our very own BCA chair. So once again, let’s all raise our glasses and say a big thank you to Meryl, to each other and to our beautiful world, the planet Earth.
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Climate Café Saturday 28 March 2026
One of our own members, Joe Flanagan, present a talk about the harsh chemicals present in everyday cleaning products.
He talked about all the antibacterial chemical cleaners that have and continue to be sold and marketed in a way that makes us believe that these very strong ‘chemicals’, (“kills 99% of bacteria”) do exactly as they say on the bottle. Joe also added than within the cleaning industry, these products are simply referred to as ‘chemical cleaners’.
Joe’s argument, proven by scientific research, suggests that by using these harsh cleaners they are only destroying the weaker strains of harmful becteria whilst causing the stronger bacteria to mutate and become more and more resistant, therefore more harmful.
Joe then presented his product: cleaners using probiotic technology. Probiotics are bacteria in themselves but play a very beneficial part in the general ecology, or, in other words, they are known as ‘friendly bacteria’. His formular involves a natural probiotic, which, whilst contained within the spray bottle, etc., is inactive until used for cleaning. He explained that once the probiotic bacteria had a source of food (debris, spillages, etc.) they then feed on this, but most crucially, they also feed on the harmful bacteria, being their natural predators.
Joe, to prove his point, cited the real-world situation within hospital wards, where harsh chemical cleaners are routinely used. A direct link has been made between the most cleaned and scrubbed areas of the wards and the highest incidences of harmful bacterial pathogens infecting inpatients.
Joe has created a line of probiotic cleaners which he sells to the public via his website.
Joe’s talk concluded with a lively debate around the topic, followed by an informal chat and general discussion.
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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.
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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!
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Join our Litter Pick events on Saturday April 9
Come and join members of Brentwood Climate Action as we take part in two Litter Pick events in town on Saturday April 9 – as part of Keep Britain Tidy’s Great British Spring Clean campaign.
Our latest members meeting at Chicken and Frog bookshop and also via Zoom on Thursday (March 24) agreed the time and dates for the events.
We will be holding two on the same day – and hope to see a mass turnout at the Courage Playing Fields in Shenfield (11am-12pm), and King George’s Playing Fields (3.30-4.30pm). We have Brentwood Climate Action hi-vis vests and litter pickers for attendees to use! But you may want to bring some gloves.
We hope to see you there. And we’ve produced a poster you can download, print and display to encourage others to come along too.
The meeting was our first of 2022 and covered a wide range of topics.
Members were again encouraged to sign up to at least one of our Action Groups via WhatsApp, links to which were circulated with the meeting invitation. If you’re not sure how to do that, or want to find out more about the Action Groups and how you could get involved, then please email us at info@brentwoodclimateaction.org.uk.
These are our forums for taking projects and ideas forward. The various Group Co-ordinators are also on our Steering Group, and will be invited to feed back progress at future bi-monthly meetings.
There were reports on the night from the Education Group – including outline plans for our second Schools Climate Change Conference at St Martin’s School in late June – the Finance Group, and the Lobbying Group.
It was agreed that we would continue to meet in a hybrid format with our base as the Chicken & Frog bookshop in Crown Street, and also using Zoom. The members meeting will be every two months.
Next Meetings:
- Tuesday 17 May, 7.30pm
- Thursday 14 July, 7.30pm
Download a copy the minutes:
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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.
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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:
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- The number of activists / members of Brentwood Climate Action has climbed well over 100 in just four months. You can sign up here.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
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Join us in Ingatestone or online
A reminder that our monthly Members’ meeting for October takes place on Tuesday 19th – in-person in Ingatestone as well as hybrid via Zoom.
The venue this month is the Seymour Pavilion at Seymour Field in Ingatestone, starting at 7.30pm – and will be a joint meeting with Ingatestone & Fryerning Parish Council Climate Emergency Working Group.
Anyone who wants to attend online, and hasn’t already received the Zoom link (which was sent out to Members today) please email us at info@brentwoodclimateaction.org.uk
The full address details for the venue are: Seymour Pavilion, New Road, Ingatestone CM4 0HH.
In the meantime, you can have a look at our October newsletter that was sent out to Members this week, on our Resources page
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Action Group progress at September meeting
It was great to see so many Members in-person at Shenfield High School for our September 16 meeting – with as many others joining in via Zoom as well.
The technical challenges of running a hybrid meeting may have proved testing at times, but we persevered and covered lots of ground.
That included looking ahead to potential activities on the Global Day of Action during COP26 in November, which is something we will return to, to formalise plans.
And we also had some thought-provoking break-out sessions across the newly set up Action Groups to start those moving forward.
For those that are unaware, we have to date set up seven of these, on the following Action areas:
- Addressing wellbeing
- Developing community energy and providing for electric vehicles
- Engaging with public and partnering with business
- Fundraising
- Lobbying
- Working with schools and monitoring climate change
- Nature & environmental action and recycling
There was lots of progress, in groups run in the room and mirrored via WhatsApp and Zoom. The groups will now continue to discuss potential Actions, and bring back their updates to the next Members meeting.
If all of this sounds interesting to you, please do get in touch – and get involved!
We’ll be holding our next full meeting of Brentwood Climate Action members on Tuesday October 19.
That is set to take place at the Seymour Pavilion at Seymour Field in Ingatestone – also hybrid online via Zoom – and be a joint meeting with Ingatestone & Fryerning Parish Council Climate Emergency Working Group.
Full details and sign-up information will be published soon.