Category Archives: carbon reduction

Pedal powered cinema at Occupy & Transition films, 5th and 12th December

Posted on December 5, 2011 | Leave a comment

Two films over two weeks re-launching the Transition film even­ings (note dif­fer­ent times and ven­ues);
*Please keep an eye out for this monthly reg­u­lar event start­ing Jan 2012*

Mon 5th Dec. 6pm : Pedal-powered cinema!! with Occupy Edinburgh and Powerpod
Venue : Occupy, St Andrew Square
Screening : Money As Debt

Please come ready to cycle power the film keep­ing you warm at the same time!!

Money as Debt is a short anim­ated doc­u­ment­ary by Paul Grignon about the mon­et­ary sys­tems prac­tised through mod­ern bank­ing. The film presents the pro­cess of money cre­ation by banks and warns of the eco­nomic sys­tem itself being the root causes of mon­et­ary instabil­ity.
see: http://www.moneyasdebt.net

* If any­one can bring their bike along to help power the film, we’d appre­ci­ate more bikes (with flat sur­faced tires)!! Please let Roland know on ; rolandplayle@yahoo.com

Mon 12th Dec. 7.30pm
Venue : Brass Monkey pub, 14 Drummond St.
Screening : Age of Stupid

Age of Stupid – film/documentary nar­rated by an arch­iv­ist in 2050, look­ing back and ask­ing ‘Why didn’t we save ourselves when we had the chance? Director Franny Armstrong (McLibel) used the “crowd-funding” model to fin­ance the film, and then spent four years fol­low­ing seven real people’s stor­ies from around the world to be inter­weaved: an Indian entre­pren­eur strug­gling to start a new low-cost air­line, a Shell employee in New Orleans who res­cued more than 100 people dur­ing Hurricane Katrina, an 82-year-old French moun­tain guide watch­ing his beloved gla­ciers melt, two Iraqi refugee chil­dren search­ing for their elder brother, a young woman liv­ing in des­per­ate poverty in Nigeria’s richest oil area and a wind­farm developer in Britain bat­tling those who don’t want his tur­bines to spoil their view.

! Help needed !
We need some help pro­mot­ing and fly­er­ing this event which will be a reg­u­lar monthly gath­er­ing from Jan 2012. If you can take some fly­ers / posters away to put in pub­lic places, we’d be grate­ful for any sup­port. Likewise any­one who can spend an hour or two tak­ing a stroll around your local shops, cafes and lib­rar­ies to put up posters, will be much loved by many !

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Posted in carbon reduction, events, Local Economy, Volunteering

Car Free Day Bike & Boat Parade!

Posted on September 3, 2011 | Leave a comment

Here is the report we sent to www.350.org who want to use pho­tos of this and other events hap­pen­ing across the planet today to pro­ject onto the UN build­ing in New York and let the powers that be know that the people will carry on lead­ing until the lead­ers follow:

“Here in Portobello, Edinburgh, Scotland, the sun shone and 50 folk turned out on their bicycles to cel­eb­rate a world mov­ing bey­ond fossil fuels.

“Another dozen folk on row­ing skiffs from our local row­ing club joined in row­ing along the shore next to the cyc­lists as we pro­cessed to the site of what we hope will become the first com­munity owned urban tur­bine in the UK. The bicycles and boats were full of people of all ages, and the cyclists were led by a bike dec­or­ated as a great green dragon! With earth flags fly­ing and ban­ners read­ing “100% renew­able energy now” we enjoyed the sun­shine and renewed our hope that com­munity action — such as the com­munity orch­ard and other food grow­ing pro­jects we have begun, and insu­la­tion pro­jects and the pro­posed com­munity tur­bine — can help ensure our chil­dren look back with hap­pi­ness at what we have done to ensure their lives are blessed with renew­able energy and renewed communities.”

We were blessed with won­der­ful sun­shine for Car Free Day 2011 (poster here), and we had a good turnout of all ages, earth flags, bikes, scoot­ers and row­ing skiffs.

We met at 2pm at the Cake Stand at the bot­tom of Marlborough Street, waited for the two row­ing skiffs to get ready with their earth flags fly­ing, then set off cyc­ling along the Prom to the beach below the pro­posed com­munity tur­bine site at Seafield. This year Our Car Free Day was held on inter­na­tional ‘Moving Planet’ Day of action (September 24th.)

Some folk spent the morn­ing at the Orch­ard for the Equinox monthly work day and then cycled down to join every­one for the 2pm start. Others joined the ‘Moving Planet: mov­ing bey­ond fossil fuels’ March and Rally at Holyrood before cyc­ling down to join our bike and boat parade. Others man­aged to fin­ish the shop­ping, or even get out of bed, in time to join us!

We had thought of hold­ing a time trial (see­ing how well a car, a bike, a skate­board, a skiff do racing against each other if none of them are fossil fuelled!) but were informed by the police that all vehicles (except work vehicles) are banned from the Prom — which is a very good thing!

Ok, why not try to guess which of these four pho­tos www.350.org chose to run with, and then think what title they might have given it?

You can find out the photo and the unex­pec­ted title by click­ing HERE!

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Posted in carbon reduction, Energy, Transport

Getting Scotland Self-building

Posted on August 15, 2011 | Leave a comment

The Scottish Self-build Forum are host­ing a one-day work­shop on how to increase the num­ber of people build­ing their own home, on Wednesday 21st September. The day will explore the oppor­tun­it­ies for a more access­ible self build sec­tor through­out Scotland, to help boost local eco­nom­ies and provide bet­ter, more afford­able (and we hope more car­bon neut­ral!) homes. The event is free for up to two del­eg­ates per organ­isa­tion. More inform­a­tion is avail­able here.

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Posted in carbon reduction, Courses, events

Back our Energyshare bid to boost community power

Posted on June 2, 2011 | 3 Comments
What the proposed wind turbine might look like

Artist’s impres­sion of the pro­posed wind turbine

A unique part­ner­ship between two Edinburgh com­munity groups has been estab­lished to develop a com­munity owned wind tur­bine on the coast between Portobello and Leith.

We would really appre­ci­ate it if you, your fam­ily, neigh­bours and friends back our bid by click­ing on the title in the box on the right to reach the www.energyshare.com web­site, and regis­ter­ing your sup­port for our tur­bine project!

PEDAL – Portobello Transition Town and Greener Leith have joined forces to con­duct detailed feas­ib­il­ity work on a site within the Seafield Waste Water Treatment Works. Early sur­veys sug­gest a wind tur­bine on this site has the poten­tial to gen­er­ate enough renew­able energy to sup­ply the annual elec­tri­city needs of 300‑1300 house­holds, depend­ing on the size of tur­bine installed. Continue read­ing →

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Posted in carbon reduction, Community, Energy, Wind Turbine

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The UK Green Film Festival, Glasgow, 20-22nd May

Posted on May 13, 2011 | Leave a comment

This is a brand new, not-for-profit, fest­ival, tak­ing place at Glasgow Film Theatre show­cas­ing films and film­makers engaged with envir­on­mental and cli­mate change themes. The pro­gramme of films and events is designed to appeal to every­one, includ­ing fam­il­ies and schools. This fun and inform­at­ive fest­ival will also fea­ture film­maker Q&As, debates and fringe events.

Check http://www.glasgowfilm.org/theatre for pro­gramme updates.

 

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Posted in carbon reduction, events

Want to be part of Scotland’s first ever online election debate on climate change?

Posted on March 29, 2011 | Leave a comment

Climate Change Election Debate
Wednesday 13th April, 7.30 – 9pm

The Scottish elec­tions are com­ing up fast.  Stop Climate Chaos Scotland is cam­paign­ing to keep cli­mate change firmly on the polit­ical agenda, and we need your support.

We’d love you to take part in the Climate Day Election Debate – a fant­astic oppor­tun­ity to ask your burn­ing ques­tions about cli­mate change to your future politi­cians from the com­fort of your own liv­ing room.

Exactly three weeks today, the event will be broad­cast over the inter­net start­ing at 7.30pm. Tune in online to watch the debate and post your ques­tions by email, Facebook or Twitter, for party spokespeople to answer live.

Your involve­ment will help ensure our future politi­cians under­stand just how import­ant tack­ling cli­mate change is to the people of Scotland.

Don’t miss this unique oppor­tun­ity to make a big difference.

Register your interest and ask your ques­tion today on Facebook or by email.

Find out more about the debate

Gail Wilson
Stop Climate Chaos Scotland Co-ordinator

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Posted in carbon reduction, Community, events

RSE Inquiry Report Facing up to Climate Change: breaking the barriers to a low-carbon Scotland launched

Posted on March 14, 2011 | Leave a comment
“Scotland, with its rich renew­able resources, world class research base, exper­i­ence in the oil and gas industry and lead­ing fin­an­cial insti­tu­tions, has much to gain from the move to a low-carbon soci­ety. We’re on the verge of a new form of indus­trial revolu­tion and Scotland could bene­fit from novel eco­nomic oppor­tun­it­ies, increased energy secur­ity and bet­ter use of resources to build stronger, more sus­tain­able com­munit­ies” com­ments Professor David Sugden, Chair of the RSE’s Inquiry.
Facing up to Climate Change: break­ing the bar­ri­ers to a low-carbon Scotland iden­ti­fies the obstacles that are stop­ping us from tak­ing steps towards a low-carbon soci­ety. It recog­nises that there is a wealth of activ­ity at EU, UK and Scottish level, includ­ing in local author­it­ies, com­munit­ies, house­holds and civil soci­ety, but that there is an acute need for coher­ence and integ­ra­tion between these levels.
The Inquiry Report, launched on 1 March 2011, sets out 10 Primary Recommendations aimed at help­ing policy makers to design policy in such a way that it over­comes the bar­ri­ers. It calls for gov­ern­ment and organ­isa­tions to embed low-carbon policies across all func­tions and for closer engage­ment between people, civil soci­ety, mar­ket and state.
This Report is the res­ult of an extens­ive con­sulta­tion pro­cess across Scotland dur­ing which evid­ence was taken from over 110 pub­lic, private and third sec­tor organ­isa­tions, as well as from around 40 indi­vidu­als, a num­ber of pub­lic meet­ings around Scotland, involving some 400 people, and a national Schools’ Competition. It has been for­mu­lated by a Committee chaired by Professor Sugden, an inter­na­tion­ally renowned cli­mate sci­ent­ist based at Edinburgh University, with mem­bers whose expert­ise cov­ers the nat­ural and social sci­ences, busi­ness, policy and education.
The Report con­siders the issues of cli­mate change, sus­tain­ab­il­ity and oppor­tun­it­ies for cre­at­ing a more sus­tain­able, fairer world. It looks at the sci­ence of cli­mate change and its implic­a­tions at both a global and Scottish scale and out­lines the eco­nomic, social and envir­on­mental con­texts that will shape Scotland’s move to a low-carbon future. The Report then focuses on the find­ings of the Inquiry and the implic­a­tions for Scotland, look­ing first to pub­lic bod­ies (local author­it­ies, edu­ca­tion, water), then to key eco­nomic sec­tors (fin­ance, energy, other industry, heat­ing, trans­port and land use).
Finally the Report looks at the per­vas­ive chal­lenges arising from multi-level gov­ernance and how they may be addressed. It is this ana­lysis that forms the basis of our ten Primary Recommendations, and sets out also 30 Supplementary Recommendations aimed at policy makers in the spe­cific  sec­tors out­lined above.
The Summary Report can be down­loaded here (2.16Mb)

The Full Report (low res) can be down­loaded here (6.40Mb)
Ten Primary Recommendations of the Report
1. The UK Government should urgently improve the infra­struc­ture and man­age­ment of the elec­tri­city grid in Scotland to optim­ise the devel­op­ment of renew­able energy and to per­mit the export of sur­plus renew­able energy.
2. The Scottish and UK Governments need to ret­ro­fit exist­ing reg­u­la­tion to achieve a bal­ance with the need to reduce car­bon emissions.
3. The Scottish Government should work with local author­it­ies and busi­nesses to align and sharpen reg­u­la­tion in order to achieve a step change in energy effi­ciency in build­ings and transport.
4. The Scottish Government and local author­it­ies should jointly intro­duce truly integ­rated polices in order to achieve effect­ive reduc­tions in emis­sions at a regional level.
5. The Scottish Government should develop a spatially-referenced national land use plan integ­rated with regional stra­tegic plans in order to optim­ise car­bon sequestration
6. The fin­ance industry should take a lead and work with gov­ern­ment to cre­ate the busi­ness envir­on­ment that will mobil­ise private fin­ance in sup­port of a low-carbon society.
7. All organ­isa­tions should appraise their goals and prac­tices in the light of the urgency to achieve a low-carbon society.
8. Local author­it­ies should integ­rate and embed their low-carbon policies across all their vari­ous functions.
9. The Scottish Government and local author­it­ies should act­ively assist local com­munit­ies to intro­duce low-carbon initiatives.
10. Closer engage­ment is needed between people, civil soci­ety, mar­ket and state in the pur­suit of Scotland’s low-carbon vision.
The remit of the inquiry was to:
1. To engage in delib­er­at­ive dia­logue with indi­vidu­als, indus­tries and pub­lic author­it­ies to help develop and respond to pro­posed Government cli­mate change policies;
2. To identify bar­ri­ers to change and to recom­mend meas­ures for cur­rent and future policies in these areas and the times­cales on which action might need to be developed.
Membership
Chairman: Professor David Sugden FRSE.
Emeritus Professor of geo­graphy, School of GeoSciences, University of Edinburgh
Members:
Professor Alan Werritty FRSE (Deputy Chair).
Emeritus Professor of Physical Geography, School of the Environment, and UNESCO Centre for Water Law, Policy and Science, University of Dundee
Mrs Erica Caldwell FRSGS.
Hon. President of the Scottish Association of Geography Teachers; Senior Examiner, SQA; Former Faculty Head, Carnoustie High School
Professor Colin Campbell.
Science Leader, Soils Group, The Macaulay Institute, Visiting Professor Department of Soil and Environment, Swedish Agricultural Sciences University (SLU).
Dr Andrew Dlugolecki.
Former Director of General Insurance Development at Aviva; Member of the UK Adaptation Sub-Committee on Climate Change
Professor Nick Hanley.
Professor of Environmental Economics, University of Stirling
Dr Andrew Kerr.
Director of the Edinburgh Centre on Climate Change
Professor Janette Webb.
Professor of Sociology of Organisations, Institute of Governance,School in Social and Political Science, University of Edinburgh
Inquiry Questions
The Committee invited writ­ten responses from Government bod­ies, com­pan­ies and indi­vidu­als on what they are doing in response to cli­mate change and what bar­ri­ers to change they are facing. The spe­cific ques­tions can be down­loaded here.

 

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Posted in carbon reduction

up to £400 towards a new energy efficient boiler!

Posted on January 31, 2011 | Leave a comment

The Energy Saving Scotland boiler scrap­page scheme offers owner/occupiers up t0 £400 towards upgrad­ing their inef­fi­cient boil­ers to new energy effi­cient ones. The scheme opens on Tuesday 1st Feb 12.30pm — no vouch­ers will be given or applic­a­tions taken before this time. It will allow upgrades of old inef­fi­cient boil­ers to help you save money and energy. For more details see the EST web­site

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Posted in carbon reduction, Energy

Water and Energy Advice

Posted on January 25, 2011 | 1 Comment

Did you know around 30% of an aver­age heat­ing bill is just for hot water? That’s around £200 a year.

A few simple changes to the way you use your water and energy can help you to cut costs. Your local Energy Saving Scotland advice centre is offer­ing a free home water and energy visit or an in-depth tele­phone advice call to house­hold­ers to help them make sav­ings in their home. To book a free home visit or advice call please con­tact the Water Efficiency Advisor at the Energy Saving Scotland advice centre on 0131 539 4128.

The Energy Saving Scotland advice centre is fun­ded by the Scottish Government. Itprovides free and impar­tial advice about how to stop wast­ing energy and water at home.

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Posted in carbon reduction, Energy

Solar Porty Scheme launched!

Posted on November 22, 2010 | 3 Comments

Please see here for more details

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Posted in carbon reduction, Energy