There’s a great climate change and eco fest event taking place at Cromford Mills at Thursday, 1 May, 2014 to Sunday, 4 May.  There is a question time panel evening on Thursday May 1^st, chaired by award-winning environmental journalist, Fred Pearce. Two different internationally known climate experts giving talks on climate change issues on each of the next three nights, with a schools and family day, as well as a Transition Café on Saturday May 3rd.

Please note that because of limited space, tickets for Question Time and the talks will be on a ‘first come first served’ basis from Cromford Mills – See http://cromfordmills.org.uk/content/warm-wet-and-windy-2014 for further details and you can book there or  phone: (01629 825995) .

Derby Campaign against Climate Change has produced, in conjunction with the Campaign against Climate Change, a leaflet on fracking. This was distributed at a very well attended meeting (more than 55 people) organised by Wirksworth Transition. Brain Davey gave a terrific presentation, which you can download as a PDF

Unconventional gas exploration is going ahead in Bassetlaw; the northernmost district of Nottinghamshire, in the next few months.

Dart Energy have a planning permit to explore and take core samples from various coal seams under land adjacent to the Danes Hill Energy Park near Sutton cum Lound, north of Retford. It is alarmingly near to wetlands and an RSPB centre. Construction work on site has already commenced

The core will be analysed to determine gas flow rate. This will inform Dart of each seam’s flow rate across the entire coalfield. Coal Bed methane extraction will follow requiring, we assume, many many wells.

Frack Free Nottinghamshire and Frack Free South Yorkshire and are supporting on Saturday 8th March. Meeting at 10am on Carolgate in Retford, and there will be banners, a table, flyers, petitions, etc.

“Public meeting at 7.30pm on Wednesday 19th March at The Well, Hospital Road, Retford.”

Here is the leaflet: ffn-bassetlaw meeting flyer final

If you are interested in helping contact frackfreenotts@gmail.com

Websites are www.http://frackfreenotts.org.uk and www.frackfreesouthyorkshire.co.uk

Following a lively discussion about fracking at our last meeting, we would be pleased to hear from those of you interested in joining a fracking subgroup to focus on this urgent issue. Send your details to DerbyClimatecoalition@gmail.com .

Note we are working on a resolution to go to the council.

Owen Paterson has been accused of “incredible complacency” over climate change after new figures showed his department has slashed spending on helping Britain cope with global warming.

The Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) will spend just £17.2m on domestic “climate change initiatives” this financial year, a 41 per cent decline on the previous 12 months, according to its response to a freedom of information request.

The figures will fuel fears that the Environment Secretary’s personal climate-change scepticism could be exposing the UK to a higher risk of flooding and other global warming consequences.

Bob Ward, policy director at the London School of Economics’ Grantham Research Institute, said: “These shocking figures should worry everyone in the UK. Defra is the lead government department for climate change adaptation and is primarily responsible for making the UK resilient to the impacts of global warming, such as increased flood risk,”

Maria Eagle, shadow Environment Secretary, said such a steep drop in domestic climate change initiatives “reveals an incredible level of complacency about the threat to the UK from climate change”.

She added: “This is further evidence that Owen Paterson’s unwillingness to accept the science on climate change is leading him to make the wrong choices on spending cuts within his department.”

[thanks to the Independent for this item: see http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/exclusive-climate-scepticism-blamed-as-owen-paterson-slashes-spendingon-global-warming-9086397.html]

The Local Government and the Climate Agenda seminar involving climate activists and people working with (and against?) local government is to be held at the Quad, in Derby, on Saturday, the 11th of January, 12 noon to 4 pm. Reserve a place: http://local-governmentandclimate.eventbrite.co.uk

This event is being organised by Derby Climate Coalition.

The meeting is being supported by the ACT! Alliance, the Low Carbon Communities Network  (LCCN) , the Midlands Co-Operative Movement and the Campaign against Climate Change.

Chris Church from LCCN, Charles Secrett from ACT!, an Officer from Derby City Council, Darren Hall member of the Bristol Green Capital of Europe 2015 team and officers from  the Campaign against Climate Change will be taking part. Activists from Brent, Manchester and Sheffield will also be there.

Phone 07876595993 for more information.

Overview:

The Derby City Climate Strategy has been published earlier in the month. We will be looking at this, and what other councils are doing.

Despite the gravity of the climate situation we have seen national and local government under-cutting commitments to combating climate change. Without a national lead, coupled with massive attacks upon funding and resources, local governments are also finding it hard to ensure that the climate message is being heard and hard to sustain related activities. This is despite the opportunities for growth in the green economy.

Strands:

• Learning from Bristol, European Green Capital for 2015: Introduced by a member of the 2015 team.
• Report from various areas (including Manchester, Derby, Brent, Sheffield) on climate activities and the interface with local government.
• Looking at examples of Local Government Climate strategies.
• What is happening to recycling?
• Fracking and local government: success in getting local government to oppose fracking.
• Empowering local government: the need for a political campaign.
• Building climate networks.

-0-0-0-0-

The event will be preceded (at 11.30 am) by a short visit to the Council’s Hydro-plant on the river Derwent, which supplies the Council with much of its own energy.  (TBC)