Oxfam's carbon competition

John Cossham

CRAGger York

Thanks very much Andy Ross for this info, because I’ve WON the competition!
My ActonCO2-measured footprint was one of the lowest submitted (I don’t know if it was THE lowest, nor do I know how many people entered…) and therefore Oxfam have invited me to go to London and talk with Hillary Benn and several other ‘Right Hons’ about the issue that we’re all concerned about!!! This will be on Weds 19th. I’ll make sure that I mention CRAGs as it was this network which enabled me to find out about the competition.
I am totally bowled over, amazed, delighted and obviously happy to have this opportunity to talk to decision-makers.
I’ll be travelling by train, by the way!
John

Bruce Hocking

CRAGger Cornwall

Well done John – You deserve to win. Have you published any details of your lifestyle (as a way of showing others how you do it)?

Also, your Irish Radio interview was amazing – you sounded very calm and professional and put your views across in a perfect manner. I’m sure the interview will have broadened the appeal of CRAGs.

Best Wishes

Bruce

John Cossham

CRAGger York

Thank you Bruce for these comments.
I would like to publish details of my lifestyle… is there a place on this website for ‘case-studies’?
If so, I’ll be one, if not, can someone create a section for such info to be logged?
John

John, Congratulations.

Here’s how you can input something about your lifestyle.

1. Logon
2. Click on Account (very top of screen)
3. Click on the Edit tab that appears on the next screen
4. Click on the your details tab ( from memory. )

BW

Rick Morgan
Sheffield

david

website team CRAGger Sevenoaks

Click on account to reach your profile page, then there should be “edit” links next to the headings for “details”, “carbon”, “crags” etc. Saves you a few clicks!

Oh and very well done and congratulations! Be sure to give PCAs a plug – as I’m sure you will!

John Cossham

CRAGger York

Thank you Rick and David, I have put a biog in the personal info box but I’m unhappy with the way the text is eventually presented… it ignored my paragraphs and the text is in one huge block. It makes it very unpleasent to read, virtually impossible actually.
Could this be changed? I think it should, to allow individuals to put in longer and paragraphed info.
If and when this is enabled, could I be told and I will edit the info, add some more and put in the various web addresses I use…
Alternatively, I can put a shortened version in here and use a new ‘biog/case study’ area of the website…. the choice is yours, CRAG website people!

david

website team CRAGger Sevenoaks

Sure, its pretty rough and ready at the moment. I’ve a site update queued up, so this is a good opportunity to look at the layout of the group and individual pages. Do you think the main focus of the page should be the details/biog section on the left hand side?

because I’m another of the winners [ActOnCO2 total last year of 1.64 tonnes p.a. divided by my and my daughter makes 0.82 tonnes].

This is great for CRAGs – at least 2 out of the 3 winners are CRAGgers. I wonder who the third one is? [and if they’re not a CRAGger, why not? Interesting to find out, whatever the answer is.]

The Oxfam co-ordinator Roudy has just told me that they will assist with any local press releases we [invidually] may wish to do – I reckon we should try and do one for CRAGs too or at least with a strong CRAGs slant.

Best wishes

Anna

John Cossham

CRAGger York

Oh that’s fab, Anna… you were a lot quieter about winning than me…. but I’ve always been a loud-mouth! Thank you for telling me your figures too. Your household figure is lower than ours, but as ours is (in theory) divided by four, my individual estimate is lower. However, both being CRAGgers is excellent! Good publicity possibilities for the movement..

I am going to email Roudi today about who the third person is, as my local paper want to know. I’m going to email you the email address of my local paper’s journo as she wants to know more about how we’ve managed such small footprints.

lol and WELL DONE YOU!!!
J
x

Wonderful news and great qudos for CRAGs and CRAGGERS.

Think there may be some very newsworthy stuff around this. I would suggest we hit Observer, Guardian, and some of the London papers with this as well as some of the bigger names in the field of sustainables, ie Centre for Sustainable Energy Energy savings Trust etc to see what free help they might make in publicity or making something of it. There are many newsletters / email bulletins that are desperate for some good news and would be easy to get into, just a lot of digging and phone work to do this.

It is good news that the the government is willing to listen to individuals and should be able to raise the profile.

Also London Sustainability exchange, what about GLA etc, local papers where you live etc.

I am sure oxfam have some great PR people who would be happy to help CRAGS on the side on this issue as it will surely pay off for them too.

Good luck

Tom

John Cossham

CRAGger York

Kat Jones from Glasgow!
Is she a CRAGger, I wonder?
Anyone know?
And I did spell Roudy’s name wrong…

John Cossham

CRAGger York

Roudy Shafie
Political and Media Activism Campaigner
Oxfam GB
Tel: +44 (0)1865473132
Mobile: +44 (0)7810836453
Fax: +44 (0)1865473133

www.oxfam.org.uk

Oxfam’s goal is a world where every person is::
secure::healthy::skilled::safe::heard::equal

Keep on campaigning
Don’t be disheartened if you’re not one of the 3 winners. There’s still
loads you can do to help end poverty. Become an activist with Oxfam we’ll
keep you up-to-date with the things you can do like keeping your local MP
engaged on the issues that matter to you.
Sign up now by emailing active@oxfam.org.uk

this is part of the message sent out to entrants to the competition.
John

andy_ross

website team CRAGger Glasgow Leamington

Kat is one of our wonderful Glasgow CRAGgers.

John Cossham

CRAGger York

I’m glad that Kat is a CRAGger, as we’ll all be aware of the idea of rationing and personal carbon allowances as a way to reduce overall and individual emissions. I’m sure we’ll all have our own take on issues too…

I have contacted my friend Justin Rowlatt (Newsnight, The One Show) and told him about the competition. I have invited him to have me/us on those programmes. I have also contacted Newsnight directly and asked them to have something on the meeting and carbon rationing on the Wednesday night. So there’s a possibility of LOTS of publicity for the cause!

However, I am not going to contact the papers or other tv/media… could someone else do this please? You are welcome to give any media person my details though. Make sure you give Roudy’s details at Oxfam and copy her in so she knows what we’re doing.

My local paper, the York Press, ran an article on me, see it here:
http://www.yorkpress.co.uk/display.var.2104090.0.compost_king.php

enjoy!

John Cossham

CRAGger York

this is the email that Anna, Kat and I received. A busy day! There’s a link to what Oxfam are doing at the bottom..

Dear John, Anne and Kat,

First let me introduce you to your co-winners. Well done you three!

Final arrangements have been made for Wednesday March 19th. Your packed itinerary for the day will be as follows:

8am – Breakfast meeting with the Oxfam team at Wellington Hotel, Westminster, SW1P 2PA

9.30 – 10.30: Tea with Rt Hon Hilary Benn, Secretary of State for the Environmental and Rural Affairs

10.30: Proceed from DEFRA Head Office to Westminster Palace

11– 11.50: Tea in the Pugin Room at Westminster Palace with Peter Ainsworth MP, Conservative Shadow Minister for Environmental and Rural Affairs

12 – 12.30: Watch Prime Minister’s Question Time from the public galleries

12.45 – 1.15: Lunch with Steve Webb MP, Liberal Democrat Shadow Minister for Environmental and Rural Affairs

1.30 – 2pm: Chat with Liberal Democrat MPs and Lords from the Environmental and Rural Affairs Shadow Committee at their monthly meeting.

2 – 3pm: Informal tour of Westminster Palace and end of day reflections over one last cup of tea.

On the day I will meet you for breakfast and then again at the end of the day to hear all about how it went. Through out the day you will be escorted by my lovely colleague Lucy Horton, so you don’t need to worry about how to get from A to B. Colleagues from the Oxfam lobby team will also be there to answer any of your questions.

Please note, we will also be taking photos and video footage of the day.

I’ll be in touch with you individually with regards to your travel arrangements and expenses.

One final thing. Your own personal action has won you the chance to tell the UK’s leading policy makers what you want them to do about climate change and why you care about the issue. To find out more about why Oxfam thinks that fighting climate change is crucial to fighting poverty, visit http://www.oxfam.org.uk/fightclimatepoverty

Please don’t hesitate to give me a call or email if you have any questions or concerns.

Best Wishes
Roudy

John Cossham

CRAGger York

If you want to see some of my low carbon lifestyle, click on this:

http://www.yorkpress.co.uk/audiovideo/video/index.var.21681.0.0.php

sorry couldn’t get a CRAG plug in….

david

website team CRAGger Sevenoaks

Well done, you three! Especially for spotting it and taking part, because I really didn’t notice the potential impact you could have – you’re sending out a powerful message that footprinting and allowances can really work.

If you’re going to be photographed and filmed – how about CRAG t-shirts? Or would that be inappropriate for the occasion? Enjoy the cups of tea – the schedule seems to be built around them!

John Cossham

CRAGger York

Thanks David!
It was Kat who alerted the CRAG website team to the competition, and Anna and I saw it posted up here.

Re clothing.. I am going to be as smart as possible with an Oxfam shirt and trousers (I am usually not smart but scruffy) but we could, at some time during the day, all put on a CRAG tee shirt and have a photo taken for posterity…

Could Anna (in London already) be given the teeshirts so we can do this if there’s time? Mine’s a large…. and if you want me to pay for it, I will, as a memento, and anyway, I like teeshirts…. much more my kinda thing.

Godd idea David.

Jessica

website team CRAGger Islington

Well done you three! It’s wonderful having all three winners as Craggers – a great story and shows what an effective tool being in a CRAG is for reducing your footprint.

You are right that this is an unmissable press op for CRAGs. You’ll need to try to steer the story so that the CRAG aims really get across… otherwise it will just be Oxfam, Government, etc and you risk being given just a pat on the head…

So need to contact national press and local press in each of your areas.

And of course we need to make it a big story for the CRAG website and our next newsletter. Please could you guys take along your own digital cameras (or borrow them) and take lots of pics? They’d also be great for our photo library for future press. You could even try to get digi-copies from the professionals – we could use them if we attributed.

I think Tshirts are an excellent idea, for all or some of the day at least. I’ve arranged to send two women’s Tshirts to Anna for her and Kat, so please can someone else send a man’s Tshirt direct to John Cossham?

John Cossham

CRAGger York

Thank you Jessica for your congratulations. I agree that this is an excellent opportunity for publicity and I’m doing my best to get some national tv coverage… when/if this is confirmed, I will share this info with CRAGgers through this website. I have already shared my local media coverage. Thank you for the teeshirt suggestion, Vey has contacted me with a large teeshirt offer…

I do want to just pick you up on one point though… you say “shows what an effective tool being in a CRAG is reducing your footprint”. I have only been involved in a CRAG for a year or so, yet I’ve been actively involved in trying to live a green/low impact/sustainable/low carbon lifestyle for 20 + years. All three winners have been ‘green’ for longer than the CRAG movement has been around. I do believe that the CRAG movement will help ‘newbies’ to reduce their impact, and ‘light greens’ to go deeper, and it’s great for me to be amongst people who DON’T see me as a crank or weirdo!! Infact, I am really enjoying being an inspiration, and I thank everybody who’s been inspired by me for being open, for being willing to change.

You are all fantastic! Keep up the good work… especially the brilliant ‘techies’ who administer this website, as it is such an amazing resource, and those of you who have made really big steps towards cutting your C footprint.
Yours, John

vey_straker

CRAGger Hereford

I’ve got one spare for you John. Its a medium – but a big one – 43 inch chest, is that OK?

Vey

John Cossham

CRAGger York

Cheers Vey, I’d love the tee shirt… I’m a 40 inch circumference, so I think it would be fine. If there’s a slightly smaller one available out there, I’d take that. But I’m not fussy!

My postal address is easily available…. I’m not sure if it’s ok to post it here but if you google Professor Fiddlesticks my home address is on that webpage.

So thank you for this… I can send you some funds if you want?

yours, John

John Cossham

CRAGger York

Thanks Vey for sending you the tee shirt, it is really good. Should we all wear them for the whole day? I think it would be quite a good thing to do, and would make an impression!
Vey, I would ike to give you some home-made dried fruit as a thank you.. is there any fruit you really don’t like? Would you like to try apple/pear/banana/pineapple/kiwi/melon/mixed fruit leather? Or some home-made sweet red pepper paprika? This is brilliant in soups and stews!
Yours, John

John Cossham

CRAGger York

Following some to-ing and fro-ing between the three CRAGgers and Oxfam, they have asked us not to wear the CRAG teeshirts when with the MPs, although they are happy for us to mention any other NGOs including CRAG.
The email from Roudy our contact at Oxfam states:
“Oxfam has strict policies and proceedures on organisational partnerships which have not followed here with carbon rationing (although we will certainly pursue this now).” so we have got carbon rationing onto Oxfam’s agenda!!! This is excellent!

vey_straker

CRAGger Hereford

An hour with Hilary Benn, eh? You should be able to cover a fair bit there! You are the CRAG dream team. Watch you don’t get caffeine poisoning though!

vey_straker

CRAGger Hereford

Check out the film of John on the same yorkpress website. Its great.

Were those your neighbour’s compost heaps you were gleaning from?

Vey

John Cossham

CRAGger York

Thanks Vey…. I collect approx 100kg of greengrocer’s waste every week with my lovely bike and trailer and compost most of it. However, significant ammounts are just unsold but still edible, such as bananas, avocados, pineapples, pears, apples, tomatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots, peppers and more, so I make soups, stews and I dry loads of fruit on the woodstoves to make my muesli really nice, or so that my kids have dried fruit to eat instead of sweets.
The resultant compost gets used in the garden but some is given or sold to other people…. infactthe veg shop takes some, in re-used plastic bags, and customers who want a bag of it can have it, for a donation… some give a pound, others give more.
Hope this explains where the stuff comes from!
John

vey_straker

CRAGger Hereford

Thats some community service you’re offering! Great.

kirti

CRAGger Georgia Maryland

Anna,
Wonderful news for being the second winner,and such a positive message from crag,having two members win.
wishes to both you and John and good luck at the meeting.

Yes, it would be interesting to hear – no pressure : )

apart from “EVERYTHING needs to be done, and you’re none of you doing ANY of it fast enough/at all”? This ain’t an effective, persuasive message!

So, firstly, my apologies for the delay in this post – other parts of my life needed to be dealt with first. [If I could choose a time to go to Westminster, it really wouldn’t be this week or next…]

Secondly, what I’d like to know is what other CRAGgers think we need to say. What are, say, the top three things that the Environment Minister and the shadow ministers should do to address climate change?

It’s actually quite hard to be so focused so I’m trying to think round this issue in terms of what the UK’s biggest contributions to climate change are so that those get addressed. [Sorry for the UK-focus, but it makes sense when talking to UK govt. ministers.] Can anyone tell me what these are?

The suggestions for topics I’ve received have been really great – please keep them coming.

Best wishes

Anna

Wow, this is really exciting! Three Craggers!

I think first of all what people can say is, yes, it is possible to lower your carbon footprint and make a positive difference in the world. That is implicit in the three even being there.

I would also say that we need to give the average person a message that it can be done and provide avenues to do it. Some of the things we learn as Craggers work well for anyone; insulating homes or cutting car trips for example.

You could also emphasize the increasing costs of energy and how saving energy equals saving money as well as greenhouse gases, and that it’s a win-win. Talk about how low your energy bills are and how you can afford to spend your money on other things.

I would also say that as much as you pollute, so can you reduce. The more greenhouse gases you emit, the greater the opportunity to reduce them. There is room for everyone, and the effort is needed from everyone.

Shannon

For reducing individuals’ carbon footprints, home heating and car use seem to account for the largest chunks and to be the areas where the biggest cuts can be made. Some suggestions…

HEATING:
2. As CRAGer, sandersp, usefully posted here recently, 60% of the homes in England which have cavity walls do not have the cavities insulated (thats 9.1 million houses) and 33% of the homes with lofts have either very poor or no loft insulation (thats 6.3
million houses) – English House Condition Survey Annual Report 2005,(page 28). So, making insulation cheap/free (without the very limited funds as seen before which make applying for the money more like entering a competition).
3. Also, encouraging greater production/uptake of local, carbon-neutral solid fuel biofuels for home heating (e.g., wood) and reducing pure red tape around Clean Air Act-exempt wood stoves for within smokeless fuel zones (many v efficient stoves have passed stringent EU emissions tests but, pointlessly, ‘need’ to be tested again here under present rules).

CAR USE:
1. Discouraging car use – esp. single occupancy use; encouraging car sharing, cycling (make the roads safer for cyclists!) and car clubs; reduce price of train fares!
2. I’m sure I’m not the only one who finds glamorous car ads intensely annoying and which perpetuate seeing the car as the essential symbol/sign of affluence/independence/style/identity etc., so if Government can slap prominent health warnings on cigarettes and alcohol they should make all car ads carry warnings about climate change, human health and road deaths, e.g., “Vehicle emissions contribute to climate change”.
3. Also, biofuels need to be regulated to discourage the badly produced stuff (eg. palm oil) and encourage production and distribution of the good stuff (locally produced/recycled stuff and developing algae as a source for the future).

Finally: Get value for money and not waste it on administrating complex schemes.

Good luck and apols if this was a bit long!
Cheers,
Richard

Here are my thoughts, you’ll end up with a lot to say at this rate…

You could say that while you have achieved very low carbon footprints, this is mainly due to your consciences, not government policies or financial incentives (assuming this is true?)

Therefore government needs to enact radical measures if CO2 emissions are to be reduced significantly. Many of these will be unpopular, may conflict with other government objectives and will hurt certain individuals, companies and interest groups. The only way such policies can be implemented is through an unprecedented level of boldness and cross-party agreement.

You could ask if they are willing to take actions which could be profoundly unpopular with the electorate.

Picking up one of Richard’s points, I’d favour banning the advertising of certain carbon-hungry goods and services, e.g. cars and flights.

On the rationing issue, I agree it’s desirable in that it would presumably force scrutiny of many carbon-related areas of life right down the chain (a nightmarishly complicated process which Oxford University are looking at wrt carbon labelling for Tescos), some of which are sadly lacking from almost all carbon footprint calculators (e.g., shopping habits).

I would also love, like JamesinYork, to see car and flight advertising banned outright but i think they would claim that this would prevent them from promoting cars/travel with (hopefully genuinely) greener credentials, e.g., hybrid elec cars. Maybe ban all ads of cars over a certain level of emissions. The car companies would have to be prevented from promoting their brand generally too, e.g., sponsoring glamorous events like the current Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week.

david

website team CRAGger Sevenoaks

Here’s my two pence!

For an overall approach, I’d emphasise you’ve got where you’ve got through sheer determination and brilliance – but that the government needs to make it easier if the rest of us are to follow in your footprints. Also, I’d bear in mind that Hillary has to sell policies to the DTi and Treasury (that’s the real trick), so policies with other benefits are always good (I wouldn’t emphasise political pain, like James, although I agree they do need to take radical action, and quickly).

On frameworks:

The UK will soon have a national carbon budget, and it needs to be rigorous: so back up the ammendments FoE are looking for: including aviation & shipping & 80% by 2050. The govt. needs to be planning how to allocate emissions rights fairly between households and business sectors (ie. to extend the EU-ETS downstream). Green taxes are fine in the short-term, but some form of cap and rights distribution – whether Cap & Share or PCAs – is essential to ensure good climate outcomes equitably. I’d argue for PCAs because they give individuals more direct control over their affairs, and promote green technologies more strongly.

On policies:

Transport: prices need to follow environmental benefit. Govt. policy has distorted the market, making air and car transport continually cheaper in real terms. It needs to rapidly reverse this by i.) subsidising rail & coach transport, instead of aviation (tax on aviation fuel, please!), ii) rapidly expanding coach infrastructure, and ceasing its airport expansion. Coach services are important because they needs to be smart, punctual and comfortable to catch on, and there is good potential for expansion by reserving current motorway space for coaches (ie. read “Heat”!)

Electricity: concentrate investmest in the most reliable forms of renewables, such as tidal stream, wave and tidal barrage – reducing dependence on fossil base load. Emphasise the economic benefits to the UK: jobs and future export possibilities (see Mark Lynas’ article The power to save Britain. Feed-in tarriffs are a proven way to boost uptake of photovoltaics and get the solar industry on its feet (again, jobs!) – we need them here!

Heat: massive government-sponsored program of retrofit (75%, or similar, of homes in 2050 have already been built!). Cavity-wall insulation: cheap, effective, proven, saves people money (meaning more disposible income for local economies), combats fuel poverty, creates jobs. It’s a no-brainer! The only reason I can see it not being done is lobbying by the gas industry. Also: wood-waste collection for chips/pellets biolers, for those who can install them.

Carbon labelling: esp on fuel bills, air and train tickets, so the climatic impact of purchases is made explicit. This is important to prepare for PCAs later. It would be very cheap to implement, and saves a tremendous amount of hassle for those who care! Declaration and auditing of companies’ and (and govt. departments’) footprints by companies so people can properly assess all the claims to begin the greenest of green.

I think you need to make it clear the time has come and gone for tinkering and soundbites. There need to be rapid, large changes in policy, but make clear the huge benefits and possibilities that are there for the taking. Be courageous, government!

Dear All,

Apologies for the delay in this post. It was such an amazing rollercoaster of a day and has taken some digesting. Many thanks to everyone who helped in the preparation for the day – you really helped us “raise our game”. I’ve * tried * to be brief and readable:

Good things about the day:

There wasn’t even the tiniest smidgeon of doubt about the science – we simply didn’t discuss this issue. The starting point in Westminster was that climate change is a given.

2 of the 3 knew their carbon footprints [Hilary Benn reported 6.6 tonnes, Peter Ainsworth 18 tonnes in a household of five; Steve Webb didn’t know – he said he’d done it a couple of years ago but not since. Even better, Peter Ainsworth said he didn’t fly]

Both Steve Webb and Peter Ainsworth expressed interest in some form of carbon trading – Peter Ainsworth at the macro-economic level “we need to have a market for carbon” and Steve Webb in the form of PCTs “how do we deal with a little old lady who gets to the middle of winter and finds she’s run out of carbon credits because she didn’t understand how the system works?”. This latter is particularly exciting news for CRAGs.

All of the 3 [and the other members of the LibDem environment sub-committee] saw public opinion as constraining their ability to act, wanted to know how to mobilise public opinion, and were very interested to hear about CRAGs and what they were doing.

All 3 wanted to know how we’d got our footprints so low, and were interested in the sorts of practical challenges we faced with this; Hilary Benn expressed frustration at the fact that even though loft insulation saves you money, people won’t do it. “How can we get people to do this?” He was also nicely shocked at the high level of service on mainland European trains over Christmas [sleeper trains on 25 December, ticket offices open at 7am on 26 December] – I didn’t need to point out that in the UK trains ground to an unplanned halt at this time, he got the message.

We ourselves were diverse representatives, both of CRAGs and of climate change activism: John did his 20 years hard-core green living thing [everyone laughed at his joke about composting toilets], I did my thing about social proof theorem and social change and mentioned the need for retro-fitting and Kat was the total star who’d found the time to read the Climate Change Bill and made excellent points about the need to include all grennhouse gases in the bill, and aviation and shipping, and explained the benefits of sustainable living. The Oxfam team were really impressed with us – rightly so!

Sitting in on the LibDem Environment Committee was absolutely fascinating – we had more time to talk and listen, and we got to hear what negotiations they were having with various groups, what sorts of amendments to acts they were working on, as well as having more time to talk about ourselves and our low carbon lives, and learn about theirs. [One of the LibDem MPs for instance, was delighted that his children found the train journey to Orkney the most exciting part of their holiday there, and hadn’t missed the plane at all – much to the surprise of the adults…] I can’t say more about that meeting really – we agreed to keep the contents of that meeting confidential.

Media interest in us – I’ve done an interview with the South London Press, and there’s now going to be an interview of Peckham CRAGgers following on from that. Several local councillors have also sent good wishes and one’s asked for our views on microgeneration and local planning, so it’s given CRAGs a stamp of authority and effectiveness…

Frustrating things about the day:

I felt that none of the 3 really got the need for * radical action, now *. Hilary Benn probably expressed the most frustration – but it wasn’t clear to me whether this was because he understood the urgency of the situation or has the responsibility to take action [or a bit of both].

Neither Hilary Benn nor Steve Webb gave any answer to what they were doing to reduce their personal greenhouse gas emissions – and Peter Ainsworth said “When my old lightbulbs go, I replace them with energy efficient ones”! We were all pretty stumped at that – constrained by social convention of not being able to say “What???!!!”. Hilary Benn suggested that we ask our MPs individually [a fob off?]

Peter Ainsworth may have sounded very green, but we didn’t pick him up on the fact that while the Tories’ green report from Michael Meacher and Zac Goldsmith made some fab points, John Redwood and other senior Tories dismissed it. Even worse, he was keen that Kingsnorth should be a trial for carbon-capture and storage.

Hilary Benn seemed lacking in leadership – for instance, we talked about loft insulation, and in response to his question “What can we do to get people install loft insulation?”, I suggested legislation. I was taken aback by the speed and negative tone of his reply “And what would be the sanction?”. Well, we’ve recently had new laws about smoking. We tried everything else with that issue, and in the end, most people recognise that we need tough action and legislation against smoking – so why not for other patently seriously dangerous forms of behaviour? I got a strong sense from him that we have to wait to persuade everyone before introducing the changes that are needed. Felt like a classic New Labour failure of vision.

Given that the LibDems were the party we spent most time with, and were able to observe in most detail, it’s difficult to make valid comparisons – but for my money, they seemed the group most engaged with what needs to be done [e.g. retrofitting as a whole not just loft-insulation] rather than what is easiest to do.

All 3 seemed to have little belief in their role as cultural leaders – when I asked if they would publicise their footprint on their websites, there was a general feeling of “Why? What good would that do? No-one listens to us anyway…”. Well, it depends what sort of an MP you are…

The limited amount of time we had was frustrating – we’d just get started and it would be time to stop…

Police manner outside the “mother of parliaments” when we got on our t-shirts and got out our banner “You’re NOT DOING THAT HERE!” opposite the anti-Iraq war demo site. Oh, I forgot about that…

And finally, despite the Palace of Westminster’s considerable pomp and grandeur, Prime Minister’s Question Time is absolutely no way to run a country/chimp’s tea party/performance art installation [delete as appropriate]

Impact?

Did we have any impact or have we just engaged in ego-massaging? We certainly had a big impact at Oxfam – they want to have a link to an Oxfam Activist CRAG [several members waiting already] on the forum which they would advertise in their “Activist News”. This is a really fantastic idea, I’m just not sure how it would work technically. Any comments David B, John Ackers?

For me, at the end of the day I felt amazed and really inspired, for several reasons. Taking part in the Westminster process was incredible – a huge thank you to Oxfam for organising this. The recognition that economic structures need to change to include greenhouse gases, and the interest in different forms of carbon trading was encouraging. But for me, most of all, learning that the perceived public opinion is holding MPs back emphasises the key part CRAGs and other grassroots groups have. In turn, the MPs’ failure to demonstrate urgency of radical action reinforces the need for that grassroots action.

So, come on us CRAGs!!!

Best wishes

Anna

this comment has been split off to the new thread Oxfam/CRAG Westminster Wednesday report. please comment there. david.

Jamie

CRAGger Hackney CRAG Wychwood

I think you should definitely mention carbon rationing, and I disagree with the CSE assessment that it would take five years. When the Second World War started, society was put on an emergency footing and manifestly changed its modus operandi in myriad ways, implementing rationing swiftly being just one of those.

All current discussions are put within the context of ‘business as usual’ where Government pays for independent reviews on independent reviews and calls it spending the taxpayers money well. In the current economic climate where the price of fossil fuels is fast becoming massively disruptive, we need to change the game substantially.

A unified international effort is required, and rationing on a global scale in line with C&C is one of the only realistic responses to the situation we face. Otherwise we risk the fragmentation of the 1930s that followed the last
big economic crash.

John Cossham

CRAGger York

I’ll be happy to do/help with a write up about the day.

I have got a list of issues and ideas to share within the ‘corridors of power’, and agree with many of the comments and ideas already posted here.

One of my main foci is waste/recycling/resource use and the suggestions below reflect that interest.

I would like Government to include home-composting figures (using existing and accepted estimations of weight/volume diverted by new composters/existing composters)in their recycling/waste diversion targets for bio waste diverted from landfill. This would really help councils promote home composting, and the knock-on effects (and extra reasons for asking for this) are that home compost replaces both fertiliser use and peat extraction, both heavily implicated in carbon emissions.

Better than this, local authorities should not be being asked to work towards ‘recycling targets’ at all, they should be being asked to aim for a certain weight of residual waste. The reason for this is twofold… firstly, many councils, including York, introduced green waste collections to get their recycling rate up. Many local authorities who did this found that the total tonnage of waste jumped as people who previously put piles of garden waste at the botton of their garden (either deliberate home composting or just a messy area out of the way) started to put this material in the green bin for driving away and shredding and big-scale composting. It would be lower carbon if this material was not taken anywhere, but remained in the garden. Secondly, this way of measuring waste would allow councils to promote other schemes to reduce residual waste such as reusable nappy schemes, doorstep milk deliveries etc. It may also help the anti-incineration movement, since incinerators give out a significant amount of landfillable ash.

Another thing which would help composting groups, recycling and re-use groups would be to make the payment of recycling credits to all of them. This funding would help them grow, depend less on volunteers and get more easily to a position where they could get to be able to bid for service-level agreements and contracts. This would fit in with something else I’d like to see: A refocussing on small-scale, local waste reduction solutions, using ‘the proximity principle’. Large scale composting/ anaerobic digestion/ mechanical biological treatment/ incineration may be cost effective from the economies of scale perspective but do not take into consideration the transport emissions, the ‘disamenity’ of large-scale set-ups, the volatility of fuel costs (ie they may be economic now but what will their costs be in 10 or 20 years?) and road congestion/disamenity from road transport.

Another idea which would help individuals take more responsibility for their own waste arisings is ‘pay by weight’ for collected landfillables. This would not be popular, nor easy to introduce, but it seems fairer to me than a flat rate which means I pay the same as my neighbour, even though my bin is filled and emptied every six or eight weeks and most peoples’ bins are filled and emptied every two weeks…. (self interest you see!!!!!)

Something a bit more technical… there are some very unpopular regulations and legislation surrounding composting which have made the lives of many Community Composters incredibly difficult. These are the Animal By-Products Regulations and related complex licencing systems. These were introduced after the Foot And Mouth outbreak but have very little to do with animal health, and make our little island the most difficult place to run any sort of non-home-composting operation in the whole world. Many countries in Europe have much more relaxed attitudes to this form of waste reduction and no more problems with animal health than we do. I’d like the Government to listen to the composting experts not the suits in DEFRA and the State Vetinary Service, and make life easier for us to divert more of this material to add to soils, where it helps store carbon, adds fertility, helps plants (including fuel plants and food plants) grow, helps reduce flash floods etc etc.

I have one or two other ideas about energy efficiency and stuff, but much of what has been aired already covers my thoughts pretty much.

Todays news about the National Audit Office http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article3559767.ece should also add to our argument that carbon emissions are not being taken seriously enough…

yours, John

John Cossham

CRAGger York

In addition to the waste stuff which I want to ask Hilary Benn to sort out, I’d like to see all businesses report their annual CO2e emissions along with their financial reporting… I believe that Christian Aid are suggesting something like this.
J