The Round Hill Society

Climate Change

Summer Council Meeting:
“The Road to Mexico”
A follow-up to last year's conference at the IMO on climate change, we now look forward to the international negotiations in Mexico in December

Saturday July 24th 1.30 pm – 5.30 pm
at The Friends Meeting House, Ship Street, Brighton, BN1 1AF

Speakers:
Bernadette Vallely
CE Women's Environmental network
“The impact of Climate Change on Women”

Polly Higgins,
Barrister, Advocate of Planetary Right
“Preventing Ecocide: the Legal Way Forward."

Debbie Tripley
CE Environmental Law Foundation
“Climate Change advocacy at the local level"

Followed by refreshments, and Action Workshops.

All Welcome.

To help us plan, please register in advance with Joyce Edmond-Smith : jedmondsmith@yahoo.co.uk – 01273 680705,

Directions: To get to the Friends Meeting House Ship Street from the station:
Go down Queens Road opposite the station. Go straight on down past North Road and Church Street, and turn left at North Street. Ship Street is the first turning on the right . Follow Ship St round to the left and the Friends Meeting House is directly on left. About 6 - 10 minutes from station. For those coming to Brighton earlier it is very close to the sea front.

Brighton & Hove City Council’s
Sustainability Conference 2010
The evolving seas: policy, climate change and the impacts and opportunities for marine resources and ecology
Thursday 15 - Friday 16 April 2010
at University of Brighton
Cockroft Building
Brighton BN2 4GJ
Full programme and registration on The Council's website.

Brighton & Hove is one of the most sustainable cities in the UK. With the South Downs National Park imminent, this will be a timely look at the city’s other major natural asset and boundary - the sea - which has so defined its history.

Post-Copenhagen, and with a major new wind farm on the horizon, what are the opportunities nd challenges the marine environment provides ow and how will it shape the city’s future?



Presentations on…

• the new Marine & Coastal Access Act
• the local Marine Conservation Zone
• coastal impacts of climate change and
sea-level rise
• local marine ecology and coastal economy
• off-shore energy generation and technologies,
including the new wind farm development off
the Sussex coast



Speakers include…

• Dr Peter Jones, University College London
• Kate Bull and Sue Wells, Natural England
• Professor Andy Cundy, University of Brighton
• Chris Tomlinson, British Wind Energy Association
• Peter Hodgetts, Searoc
• Tim Dapling, Sussex Sea Fisheries Committee
• Chris Hines, environmental campaigner
• Crown Estate and E.ON Climate & Renewables UK re: Sussex offshore wind farm

Featuring coastal tours, networking opportunities and a wide variety of stalls.



For more information, a full programme, and to register your place, please see www.brighton-hove.gov.uk/sustainabilityconference2010 or telephone 01273 293331.

Places are limited, so please book early.

Sustainability Conference 2008
Click here to access notes from the Council's 2008 Sustainability Conference: Brighton & Hove: the first ‘Urban Biosphere City’? .

Transition Brighton and Hove
Transition Brighton and Hove - a community response to the challenges of Peak Oil and Climate Change.

There is also a forum where everyone can air their views and ideas about how we can move to a reduced energy future.

A clear account of the process of becoming a transition city is posted here.

For the latest information, see the website at http://www.transitionbrightonandhove.org.uk
Joining Transition Interest Groups (Food, Transport, Energy, etc): either sign up in the Usergroups on the forum – how to do this here.
or reply to this email and let me know – either way your email address will be passed on to the group coordinator who will let you know about future meetings. You can also contact the group coordinators directly, see here

Forum: please remember to add your news, opinions and suggestions to the discussions on the forum – this is the place where ideas for projects and collaborations can begin:
Transition Brighton and Hove Forum


Reports on past events

Two important talks given on 17th April 2008 at The Brighthelm Centre
Jeremy Leggett's talk was on Why we must act ahead of peak oil production. Go to his online blog for articles on similar themes. Jeremy Leggett is author of 'The Carbon War' and 'Half Gone'.

Dr Jim Watson's talk on Generating our own energy is available online as a Powerpoint Presentation. Dr Jim Watson is the Deputy Director of the Sussex Energy Group at SPRU at Sussex Uni. Brighthelm Centre, North Road, Brighton.

'Educating for our Future'
Click here for a report on Brighton and Hove City Council's Sustainability Conference 'Educating for our Future' held at Dorothy Stringer High School on 12th October 2007.

What is the Council doing about Climate Change?
Click here for information on how you can influence Brighton and Hove City Council's planning policies and decisions on sustainable development.

Report on talk accompanying the screening of the film 'How Cuba Survived Peak Oil', organised by Cuba Solidarity Campaign
A report on the talk given by Dr Julia Wright, which followed the screening of the film 'How Cuba Survived Peak Oil' is posted on The Brighton and Hove Transition Forum (scroll down the page to see the report and other participants' feedback).

Environmentally-friendly traders and campaigns in a nutshell
1. Green INDEX of local traders and organisations

2. Waste INDEX of campaigners (local and national) opposed to dependence on Waste Transfer Stations and Incineration and in favour of reducing the production of waste and increasing recycling.

Brighton and Hove is unlike most of the existing Transition towns and cities, firstly because of its size, and secondly because there are already so many organisations working to promote green living and improving our environmental impact already in existence.

Background information
Peak Oil is the date when the peak of the world's petroleum (crude oil) production rate is reached. After this date the rate of production is predicted to enter terminal decline, following the bell-shaped curve predicted by the theory.
Attempts to prepare for Peak Oil have included Rob Hopkins' Energy Descent Plan, known as Kinsale 2021. The first draft of the Kinsale Energy Descent Action Plan (EDAP) was completed in 2005. It sets out how Kinsale, an Irish town in West Cork town of about 7,000 people, could make the transition from a high energy consumption town to a low energy one in response to the challenge of the impending peaking of world oil production.

Much more planning will be needed if a large city like Brighton and Hove, with more than a quarter of a million residents, is to adapt to the post-oil economy.

Climate Change describes the new weather patterns experienced in many parts of the world, which are held by many eminent scientists to be the result of Global Warming.

Many scientists and environmentalists believe that the oil age will come to an end, not because we have a lack of oil. They point out that stocks of fossil fuel have the potential to emit about eighteen times more carbon dioxide than has been emitted over the last 250 years. However, the use of just a fraction of these stocks would spell the end of a habitable planet for most of the Earth's population.

Over 30 Transition-cities, towns and villages across the UK and Ireland are planning for a future without fossil fuel including:
Totnes, Bristol, Stroud, Brixton & Lewes.

More information about Transitions can be obtained from two web sites: www.transitiontowns.org and www.transitionculture.org

Previous initiatives in Brighton & Hove to tackle Climate Change
Brighton and Hove City Council's Action Plan

Brighton and Hove Council's Climate Change Action Plan (PDF 42 pages)

Brighton Climate Change

Initiatives involving politicians i.e. Brighton & Hove's MPs and local Councillors


The problem of climate change is relevant to development proposals within Brighton & Hove aimed at higher densities (e.g. transport implications: congestion; air quality management), the problems of the quantity of waste we produce (e.g. wasteful design/consumption; over-packaging), and our Council's arrangements for disposing of it (e.g. the low level of our current recycling targets and dependence on incineration as a future method of waste management) and the choices as to how we produce energy (e.g. renewables, import of oil/gas, coal, nuclear).

This page was last updated by Ted on 29-Jun-2010