Our next meeting will be on Thus. 06.06.24 at 19:30, this will be a zoom.
Here are some notes from the meeting. If you’d like more information on any of the topics, please contact me or comment on the post.
What an excellent opportunity to sample a recently built PassivHaus, almost as good as the host’s cake!
The six of us found out first-hand about the construction and operation of Paul’s home, we even managed to have a productive discussion about how/who to message. You can read a summary about the PassivHaus in the case study.
- Who we should talk to and what we should say.
Not sure what triggered this, maybe it was the ‘old farts’ sitting round a table with stunning views of the natural world outside. Once we ‘shared’ our frustrations, we had a wide-ranging discussion on what we, that is ACT-Energy and CC, should do and how we should do that. Here is my attempt at summarising this in a few points.
The message needs to be clear and stark, if the audience can cope with it (great care is needed with young and vulnerable people). The 1.5C tipping point will probably be reached by the end of this year, we may already be past that. This is bad enough, but it can get much worse unless we act immediately and decisively.
The only realistic solution is to reduce our energy consumption (halve it within a year or two), we provide the support/information on how this can be achieved without prescribing personal actions. At the same time, we need to replace the energy we generate from fossil fuels with renewables, but this can be challenging and needs a level of technical understanding which ACT can provide.
There are 3 groups that we could communicate with: those who set the rules ; those who make, sell or provide goods/services ; the general public. We should focus on the latter two within Teignbridge. It is more effective to engage with those who set the rules by having someone on the inside, general lobbying would not be effective for ACT, other groups already do this like XR, Regen, political parties think-tanks, etc.
Our Energy & Built Env and Transport webpages guide you to the important information you need. If you are unsure or need specific help, please contact me.
Here is a US report from earlier this year, but most recently a group of IPCC scientists were surveyed, their message is stark.
- Electrifying public transport.
DCC and Torbay have secured grant funding with Stagecoach. We didn’t have much time to discuss, but overall we thought this is a good initiative especially in built up areas.
- Updates to Carbon Factors.
We’ve updated the CFT (v5) to reflect latest methodology for calculating consumption emissions for Food, Goods and Services. You may notice some changes to your emissions, we also added a new category of “eating out” as this has a higher carbon intensity than any of the 5 food diets.
- How is the Devon Carbon Plan progressing?
The DCP has released its latest information on progress against the plan. It’s really good to see this reporting despite there still being gaps. We very much hope TDC will continue with its annual ghg emissions inventory reporting and expand this top cover Teignbridge as a whole.
- BBC opportunity get a hustings question on the radio.
This was sent in as a suggestion from an Energy group member which is worth considering, let me know if you want to be involved in this, suggest changes or even another question (deadline is end of May):
“The recent High Court ruling that the UK Government acted unlawfully in approving its climate action plan, and the question of how a government can be made to abide by its own laws?”
- Experience with Time of Day energy pricing.
This cam up recently in some national media outlets, again we didn’t have much time to discuss, but clearly some of our national newspapers chose to spin the story. It’s always worth going to the original source or read different media outlets. Here is the original, not so recent reference to the trial in Canada.
- Ammonia’s use in agriculture and transport.
This is primarily used in agriculture, but recent headlines have been promoting an ammonia fuelled ICE engine. They tend to say nothing about the climate impact of ammonia production.
- Another offsetting scheme.
This is another, probably well-intentioned scheme, but how effective is it in terms of actions to mitigate climate change, its primary selling message. Probably good for the ecology and great if it makes us feel good, but that’s the extent of its impact. Why the greenwash, why not simply state the two real benefits?
Written by Fuad
Energy group coordinator