This year’s seminar series concluded with our guest Mark Leach the Climate and Nature Engagement Lead of Bristol’s Climate Change Team talking about the European Green Capital 2015 and Engage Board member and Ropewalks resident Diana Heredia shares her report.
Before starting the meeting current events made it necessary to reflect on an extreme weather event that caused the deaths of at least 217 people through flooding and the destruction of many homes and businesses in the city that just two weeks ago wowed us with stunning projects to make Valencia a better place to live. Gerry Proctor led the room in one minute’s silence to commemorate people affected.
After introducing the speaker and panel and thanking our host and sponsors for their generous support Mark stepped up to talk about the work Bristol, the only British European Green Capital, has done in the run up to winning their award almost ten years ago. The city was then seen as a pioneer in citizen engagement and communication with a strong commitment to reducing its carbon footprint and tackling climate change.
Mark talked about the role climate, nature and citizen engagement plays and emphasises the role of partnerships and the Council. The words that most stands out are “just transition”. He puts a focus on how messages are conveyed and how people in difficult economic situations might have other priorities, but still care about their environment.
On the Bristol Climate Hub individuals, businesses and communities can find inspiration on what to do at their own level. The engaging website shares stories on what people in Bristol do, showing that small actions can contribute to the bigger goal. Mark talked about the “real” issues people are facing and how the solutions deal with climate issues at the same time. He presented the Ambition Lawrence Weston https://www.ambitionlw.org project, showing how a resident driven organisation, after a decline in local services, pulled together to protect and enhance the community. The residents of this community co-created a community climate action plan as part of a Community Climate Action Programme. As a result of this programme eleven communities in Bristol have developed plans with support from Bristol Climate & Nature Partnership, Bristol City Council and the Centre for Sustainable Energy. The partnership’s Theory of Change sets out a bold and inclusive vision for communities and nature that underpins policy based on a Just Transition that pledges to combat social inequality.
Mark mentioned a mind boggling number of notable projects, among them:
- Bristol Energy Network -umbrella organisation for individuals and community groups with an interest in energy in Bristol and the surrounding area
- One City Approach -bringing stakeholders together to make the city fairer, healthier and more sustainable by 2050
- One City Plan -plan to achieve 3 goals each year until 2050 across six themes: Economy and Skills, Children and Young People, Transport, Homes and Communities, Environment and Health and Wellbeing.
- Living Wage City -plan to become a living wage city
- SIFFFT project – initiative to enable community owned wind turbines
- Bristol Energy Helpdesk -advice for people facing energy-related issues or fuel poverty
- Warm Up, Skill Up -scheme to upskill people to improve the energy efficiency of their homes
- Energy Academy -digital learning platform for home energy assessments, learning and training
- Bristol City Leap – partnership to accelerate green energy investment
- Green and Black Ambassadors -making sure the transition is more inclusive and reaches everyone
- Creative Connex -films about ethnically diverse environmentalists
- Mission Net Zero – project supported by funding from Innovate UK to make Bristol a more sustainable and inclusive city and support the Bristol One City Climate Change Strategy’s ambition of becoming carbon neutral and climate resilient by 2030.
The examples Mark gave throughout the presentation have all one thing in common: They have people at the heart of it. They trust that people have what it takes to better themselves and their communities and if not, that they have the will and the ability to acquire the skills.
The Just Transition Declaration setting down the principles to achieve these goals reads:
The 10 principles, not in order of importance, are:
- Centring the expertise of disadvantaged communities at every step of the journey,
- Good future-proof jobs for everyone,
- Empowering disadvantaged communities to take climate and ecological action,
- Supporting individual change through system change,
- Fair distribution of costs and benefits,
- Prioritising accessible communication,
- Standing in solidarity with those experiencing the worst climate and ecological impacts across the globe,
- Building inclusive resilience,
- Infrastructure for all,
- Embedding the process internally and at the beginning.
As at the other two events Simon Mansfield, our Sustainability Manager, responded to the presentation first by stating what a great opportunity to learn the seminar has been and sharing data from Liverpool showing the challenges, but also what the city has done so far. He repeats the credo: “Involve and then evolve” as being his main takeaway and it becomes clear that he understands the importance of participation and talks of plans for a citizen jury for net zero.
As this year the panel consists of a politician, academic, activist and representative of the arts sector we hear from Councillor Nick Small, Prof. Alex Nurse (University of Liverpool), Ed Gommon (Zero Carbon Liverpool) and Andy Kelly (Shakespeare North Playhouse) and it feels like here is a good opportunity to start those all-important partnerships that Mark put such emphasis on.
In the spirit of Bristol’s example this seminar was not followed by a Q&A, but by conversations among the audience reflecting on what we all think should come next. Which action did people think we should enact as individuals, as Engage and what should the Council do? The resulting suggestions will be published as soon as collated.
Of the many slogans that were dotted through the presentation the one that probably sums up Bristol’s impressive approach over the last 10 years and the one most to aspire to must be “In it for good”. It sounds doable, let’s begin.