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South Lakeland District Council (SLDC) has become the first local authority in Cumbria to declare a climate emergency, committing to cuts in carbon emissions in the area.

Cumbria’s second declaration may not be far behind. Carlisle City Council will vote on a climate emergency motion next Tuesday, 5 March.
SLDC’s climate emergency motion was approved unanimously at a meeting of the full council on 26 February. It was led by Dyan Jones, environment portfolio holder.

The motion states:

“Council confirms that it is committed to reducing its carbon emissions and continues to look at all areas of policy and delivery. The Climate Change Policy and the work of the Green Team demonstrates and clarifies our position and ambitions. Council recognises that many organisations have been working hard locally and nationally to identify and address climate change in their own communities and with partners.

“However, council believes action needs to happen faster. Business as usual is not enough and there is a growing urgency to implement these actions more rapidly. Council confirms that we are facing a climate emergency. Council now urges government to recognise this urgency and to work with local authorities, health services, businesses, consumers, farmers, educational institutions and all other interested bodies to reduce to net zero as quickly as possible our carbon emissions and their equivalents.”

Read the full SLDC motion

Carlisle City Council will debate a climate emergency motion led by Colin Glover, leader of Carlisle City Council, at their full council meeting on 5 March.

Read the Carlisle City Council motion (see item 17)

It includes:

“Carlisle City Council is committed to reducing carbon emissions, both as an organisation and as the Local Planning Authority and resolves to go further than the UK100 Agreement and to act in line with the scientific consensus that we must reduce emissions to net zero by 2030, and therefore commits to:

• Declare a ‘Climate Emergency’ that requires urgent action
• Make the Council’s activities net-zero carbon by 2030
• Ensure that all strategic decisions, budgets and approaches to planning decisions are in line with a shift to zero carbon by 2030
• Support and work with all other relevant agencies towards making the Carlisle district Zero Carbon within the same timescale
• Achieve 100% clean energy across Carlisle City Council’s full range of functions by 2030
• Convene a citizens assembly in 2019 to oversee and feed into the development of related action plans and budgets”

CAfS is proud to have worked closely with South Lakeland District Council over the past decade to support their substantial low-carbon events and community support programmes.

We were also delighted to be invited to support the development of the Carlisle City Council motion and proud of the strong motion being proposed.

Hazel Graham, chief executive of CAfS, said:

“We are certainly living through a rapidly changing and unique moment in history. We are finding that there is a huge drive in Cumbria from communities, individuals and businesses to take strong action on climate change and that we have some world-leading organisations in the county driving this change.

“We have the technology we need to tackle climate change, we have the skills, knowledge and passion in our county to deliver the huge benefits of a rapid transition to zero carbon. We have worked with tens of thousands of people in Cumbria and supported huge numbers of communities, individuals, businesses and local authorities to reduce their carbon footprints in the 20 years that we have been in operation and we’ve seen first-hand the huge benefits this brings. We are delighted to see such leadership and vision from local authorities.”

About climate emergencies

A rapidly growing number of city & district councils, together with the Mayor of London, have passed motions declaring a climate emergency, which acknowledges the urgent need to reduce carbon emissions.

Some of these motions set science-based targets for reaching zero carbon for the councils’ own activities by 2030. A number of local authorities have also signed up to the UK100 Agreement, pledging to achieve one hundred per cent clean energy usage by 2050 in their region.

According to the 1.5C report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, published in October 2018, humanity has 11 years for “ambitious action from national and sub-national authorities, civil society, the private sector, indigenous peoples and local communities” to deliver the “rapid and far-reaching transitions in land, energy, industry, buildings, transport, and cities” to avoid irreversible, catastrophic climate change.

We’ve been creating a brand-new website for CAfS, and we’d like to invite you to be the first to take a peek! It’s still a work in progress, with more content to be added, but we’d welcome your feedback.

The site has been redesigned to make it quick and easy for visitors to find the information they need, to make life here in Cumbria more sustainable and tackle climate change.

There’s a new sustainable living guide, with practical tips to reduce your carbon footprint – from travel and food to shopping and waste.

The new ‘For your home’ section is packed with advice and information that will help you to use less energy at home. There’s guidance on insulation, draughtproofing, ventilation, flood resilience, renewable energy for heating and power, energy tariffs and lots of practical energy-saving tips.

We’ve launched a new Cumbria Green Building and Lifestyle Directory, to help you find suppliers for everything from living roofs and solar PV to zero-waste shops. We’re in the process of adding suppliers, so please bear with us. If you’re a supplier, please add yourself – it’s free to have a listing.

The new website will also make it easier to find out about CAfS’ projects, past and present. You can delve into some of our highest profile initiatives, including the Rebuilding Together programme to help Cumbria adapt for future flooding and other extreme weather. You can get behind the scenes at 33a Chapel Street, our video project following the renovation of a solid-wall property in Appleby. You can also explore what’s been happening in the three-year Alston Moor Greenprint project to create a vision of a greener future for the area. We’re adding new content to the projects section at the moment, so please bear with us.

There’s now a news section where you can keep up to date on all things sustainability in Cumbria and beyond.

You’ll also find a new events section, where there’ll be details on forthcoming CAfS events, complete with online booking – all without leaving the site.

Coming soon

We’ve started to build two new sections, which will be added to the site soon:

For communities

This is where you’ll find lots of information to help reduce your community’s carbon footprint – from making your village hall more energy efficient through to community energy and other local sustainability projects.

For professionals

This section is for people using the site in their professional capacity – from construction professionals interested in low-energy building, to those who support vulnerable people whom we might be able to help with our services such as draughtproofing and energy advice.

Your thoughts on the new site

We hope you’ll find the site easy to use useful. Please do share your thoughts. Is the new content helpful? Is there information you’d like us to add? What do you think of the look of the site (bearing in mind we’re still tidying up some of the layout!)? Email our marketing manager, Jaki Bell: [email protected]. Thanks for helping us to get the site ready for its full launch!

Students from Cumbria will be among the young people from 150 cities around the world going on strike on Friday 15 March, demanding urgent action on climate change. It’s the latest in a series of protests by young people since last summer, begun by the Swedish teenager Greta Thunberg.

Next month’s protest is expected to be the biggest mobilisation of young people so far. Students from 150 cities are taking part, with university students now also starting to join their high-school counterparts.

Youth Strike 4 Climate – Carlisle

A group of young people from the Carlisle area have organised a demonstration at Carlisle Market Cross on Friday 15 March, from 11am to 2pm. The demonstration aims “to pressure the people in power to do something about this climate emergency”.

“We welcome any young people who would like to join us in our fight,” a representative of the group said. “Bring placards, banners, face paint, megaphones, enthusiasm, friends!”

Find out more about the demonstration (Facebook)

Banner making

The group is hosting a banner-making session in preparation for the demonstration. “We are going to be at Carlisle market place on Saturday the 2nd of March from 10 to 4pm making banners, badges and plans to save the world. Please join us and bring your friends along!”

Find out more about the banner-making session (Facebook)

Know of other activities?

If you’re aware of other demonstrations or activities by young people, please let us know. It will help us to keep up to date with what’s happening around the county, and we can also help spread the word on our social media.

Background to the youth protests

Read more about the school climate change protests (Guardian article) >>  

Churches from across Cumbria came together last month for a conference on the Christian response to the mounting environmental challenges. CAfS was among the environmental organisations taking part in the Caring for Our Common Home event, at Keswick School on 2 February 2019.

Around 150 people attended the conference, which was a chance to reflect on why and how we should care for the Earth, our common home.

The possibility of a follow-up conference is in active discussion, after the success of this event, which was sponsored by ECiC and Engaging Theology in Cumbria.

“The event was excellent with some very thought-provoking and engaging speakers and a wide range of workshops to attend,” said Emma Greenshaw from CAfS. “It was fantastic to see a room full of people interested in protecting the Earth from the impacts of climate change. The involvement of students through Keswick School was a great way to engage with their generation and stimulate ideas.”

Here’s a brief overview of the day, from Churches Together in Cumbria’s March newsletter:

Keynote lectures started the morning and afternoon sessions. Professor Keith Ward spoke on ‘Deep Ecology: Creation and the Environment’ in which he discussed the relation between the concept of deep ecology and the Christian faith. Professor Peter Scott’s title was ‘Sharing Our Common Home?’ In his talk, he explored the perceived tension between the interests in life of people and the interests of other creatures and the planet itself. Can we share our common home, and how?

The keynote lectures were complemented by ten different workshops covering a wide variety of practical responses we can make to what we had heard from our keynote speakers. They included a Question Time style discussion with local MPs and other political leaders responding to questions from sixth-form students.

We learned about the Eco-Church scheme for accrediting environmental action in the local church and the Green Journey scheme pioneered in the Leeds Diocese to enable churches to reduce their carbon footprint and switch to more renewable energy sources. Mountain Pilgrims took the more energetic for a short walk to sample the exploration of the Holy in nature.

Other workshops presented the Pope’s Laudato Sí encyclical, the significance of Cumbria’s world heritage status, the role of wild processes in nature, the Biblical background to our relationship with the natural world and the work of Christian Aid to combat climate change.
Throughout the day, a market place was running. Stalls provided a variety of resources and opportunities for informal discussion with representatives of environmental bodies.

CAfS has been named as one of 15 charities from across the UK being awarded national funding that will see thousands of households saving energy, money and living in warmer, more efficient homes.

We’ve been awarded £148,000 from the Energy Saving Trust as part of the Energy Redress Scheme, announced on Tuesday 8 January, which redistributes voluntary payments from UK energy companies.

The grant means we can help more than a thousand Cumbrians to reduce their heating bills and get a warmer, more comfortable home. The new Cold to Cosy Homes scheme will offer extensive energy-saving and draughtproofing measures and advice for around 600 homes.

Another 400 people will be able to access energy-saving advice at drop-in sessions and by phone. CAfS will also train at least 25 staff at organisations that support vulnerable people, enabling them to help and refer even more Cumbrians who are struggling with their energy bills.

“CAfS has been the main local provider of advice and training on energy saving and fuel poverty in Cumbria for many years, and this grant is a major boost to the support we can offer people,” said Andrew Northcott from CAfS, who will lead the Cold to Cosy Homes scheme.

CAfS, which is in its twentieth year, will work with a wide number of referral partners, so that more households can easily access all the funding they’re eligible for in a smooth and streamlined process.

“Thanks to this grant, we can offer a more comprehensive service, as we’ll be able to assess people’s eligibility for other funding and support, including fire safety checks, winter fuel hardship payments, benefits advice, and local Winter Warmth grant funding.”

The funding also means we can continue researching a new way of testing the effectiveness of draughtproofing measures.

The Cold to Cosy Homes scheme will go live in September this year and will run for two years. In the meantime, CAfS can help eligible households who are feeling cold winter draughts or struggling with high heating bills through one of its current draughtproofing and energy advice schemes. Contact us now on 01768 210276 or [email protected].