Climate Emergency Conference- Raising Ambition

Location: Bloomsbury Central Baptists Church, London.

Programme - with links to presentations and briefing papers where available
1030 – Welcome and introductions – Natalie Bennett (Green European                          Foundation), Anne Chapman (Green House)
            The Climate Emergency - Andrew Simms
            Climate Psychology and cultural change – Nadine Andrews
1200 – Parallel sessions – Making a plan
          - Green New Deal and Just Transition - Sam Mason and Fatima Ibrahim
          - Climate Jobs – Jonathan Essex and Peter Sims
          - Zero Carbon plans  - Paul Allen and Yves Marignac
1300 – Lunch and information/discussion tables on:
            Reuse and recycling - John Webb and Neil Pitcairn
            Sustainable and Active Transport - Stephen Joseph,
            Renewable energy  -Agamemnon Otero (Repowering London) and                      John Taylor
            Food and farming - Robert Reed and Page Dykstra
            Street by street retrofit -  Philip Webber
            Local councils -  Simon Pickering
1430 – Workshops  – Making it happen
         - Making an Action Plan - Simon Pickering, with Jonathan Essex and                    Peter Sims
            Identifying key enablers and blockers of a step change in emissions.                    A 'Climate Emergency Action Plans brainstorming toolkit used in this                workshop can be downloaded here.                
            - Widening the Coalition – Ian Christie, Surrey Climate Commission
            Establishing partnerships, setting up a local climate commission and                  citizens assemblies.
1545 – Making change happen - Feed back from workshops and panel                            discussion chaired by Natalie Bennett
1700 – Conference Ends

Event Recordings:

Speakers
Andrew Simms is Coordinator of the Rapid Transition Alliance, an author, political economist and activist. He is co-director of the NewWeather Institute, Assistant Director of Scientists for Global Responsibility, a Research Associate at the University of Sussex, and a Fellow of the New Economics Foundation (NEF).
Nadine Andrews is a psychosocial researcher and mindfulness and nature-based coach, consultant and trainer. Her work is concerned with supporting people to live in harmonious relationship with the natural world.  She works as a senior social researcher in the Scottish Government and is a Visiting Researcher at Lancaster University's Pentland Centre for Sustainability in Business and a member of the Climate Psychology Alliance.
Fatima Ibrahim is a member of IPPR’s Environment and Justice Commission.  She has spent the last 8 years as an activist with the UK Youth Climate Coalition mobilising young people around climate change and is now a senior campaigner for WeMove.eu, a citizens movement for a progressive EU and one of the coordinators of Green New Deal UK. (Fatima was unable to attend at the last moment).
Sam Mason is a Policy Officer at the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) trade union. Her remit covers the impact of climate change on work and advocating for a just and transformative transition for workers. She is the main author of the PCS publication Energy Democracy and Just Transition: a civil service perspective www.pcs.org.uk/resources/green-workplaces/new-pamphlet-just-transition-and-energy-democracy-a-civil-service-trade.  She has been an active trade unionist and a climate/environmental activist for many years.
Paul Allen is the co-ordinator of the Centre for Alternative Technology’s Zero Carbon Britain project.  The Zero Carbon Britain reports set out how Britain could be zero carbon by 2030.
Yves Marignac is an expert in nuclear safety and a contributor to Association négaWatt’s scenario 2017-2050 which sets out how France could become carbon neutral by 2050.
Jonathan Essex is a chartered engineer and environmentalist. He has worked for engineering consultants and contractors in the UK, Bangladesh and Vietnam. His current work focuses on improving the sustainability and resilience of livelihoods and infrastructure investments worldwide.  He is also a Green Party councillor in Surrey.
Peter Sims is an engineer who specialises in systems engineering. He particularly focuses on the overlap and interfaces between human and non-human systems. For example, the relationship between energy or transport systems and human behaviour in the context of climate change.
Simon Pickering is a Councillor on Stroud District Council where he is chair of the Environment Committee.  He has led the council to becoming the first Carbon Neutral Council in Europe, improved the energy performance of over 16% of the private houses in the district, cut the emissions of the council’s own buildings and installed PV on council buildings and council housing. He has also overseen the development and introduction of an awarding winning recycling scheme that results in the least amount of residual waste per head of population of any council in England.
Ian Christie is a senior lecturer at the Centre for Environment and Sustainability at the University of Surrey and a co-investigator in the research programme CUSP on sustainable prosperity led by Tim Jackson.  He has previously held positions at Demos, the Policy Studies Institute and the Henley Centre for Forecasting as well as roles in central and local government. His interests are mainly in the political economy and ethics of sustainability; values and behavioural change in households, communities and large organisations; and policymaking for sustainability.

Lunch Time Sessions
Street by Street Retrofit
Dr Phil Webber was head of the Kirklees Environment Unit, from 1990 until 2011.  In 2006 this delivered what was then the UK’s largest photo-voltaic programme and in 2007-2010 the £21m Warm Zone home insulation scheme – the largest ever such programme in the UK. He is a non-exec director of YES energy solutions CIC, and Chair of SGR Responsible Science.
Reuse and Recycling
John Webb is a member of Hertfordshire Without Waste (HertsWOW) which is working to persuade Hertfordshire local authorities to introduce more sustainable ways of reducing, reusing and recycling surplus materials locally, at each main town in the county. This would take us towards a 'circular economy' in which we would no longer dispose of huge quantities of waste through incineration and landfilling. John is also a director of the United Kingdom Without Incineration Network, of which HertsWOW is a local group.
Neil Pitcairn is director of the United Kingdom Without Incineration Network.  Founded in March 2007, UKWIN’s role is to help individuals and groups develop the case against incineration, and in doing so to support the UK-wide movement in favour of more sustainable waste management.
Transport
Stephen Joseph, now an independent transport policy adviser, was formerly chief executive of the Campaign for Better Transport. He is a visiting professor at the University of Hertfordshire, adviser to the Rail Devolution Network and trustee of the Foundation for Integrated Transport.
Renewable Energy
Agamemnon Otero is co-chief executive officer of Repowering London and a director and project manager for Brixton Energy Solar.
John Taylor is energy projects manager for the Greater South East Energy Hub.  The hub is funded by BEIS to work with local authorities, LEPs and community energy groups to help them accelerate the quality, scale and delivery rate of local energy projects. He also oversees the Rural Community Energy Fund which gives grants to assess the feasibility of community led renewable energy projects.
Food and farming
Robert Reed is Grants Manager at the A Team Foundation, a social investor and funder for the food sovereignty and agroecology movement. The A Team envisions a future where real food is produced by enlightened agriculture and access to it is equal. Robert also has an MSc in Agroforestry from Bangor University.
Page Dykstra is Coordinator of the Community Supported Agriculture Network UK.  CSA scheme community farms enable communities to take control of their food supply by providing their members with a variety of local, often organically produced food from vegetables and meat, to milk, bread and honey.
Local Councils
Simon Pickering is a Councillor on Stroud district council where he is chair of the Environment Committee.  He has led the council to becoming the first Carbon Neutral Council in Europe, improved the energy performance of over 16% of the private houses in the district, cut the emissions of the council’s own buildings and installed PV on council buildings and council housing. He has also overseen the development and introduction of an awarding winning recycling scheme.

The conference was organised by the Green European Foundation with the support of Green House Think Tank and the financial support of the European Parliament to the Green European Foundation.​  It was part of Green House's Climate Jobs project.

Supported by High Wire Centre for Doctoral Training at Lancaster university: