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During 2010 at many local events, Stockport Friends of the Earth have asked local residents to sign postcards to Stockport councillors in support of our Get Serious campaign...
At a meeting of the Stockport Environment Partnership (27/9/10), Stockport Friends of the Earth asked Cllr Stuart Bodsworth, Executive Councillor (Environment) to urge Stockport Council to:
- Commit to cutting emissions in Stockport by at least 40 percent by 2020
- Produce an action plan showing how Stockport Council will achieve this
- Support a call by Friends of the Earth to Government for more money and less hassle for councils so they can get on with things like fitting green energy, insulating homes and improving public transport
Kate and Hasan from Stockport Friends of the Earth communicated the Top 6 Policy Suggestions for reducing carbon emissions:
- Heating - free loft + cavity wall insulation could reduce heating bills by 30% saving over £200 per annum
- Funding retrofit of renewables - solar panels, solar thermal, etc.
- Traffic reduction - Local Transport Plans aimed at reducing the need to travel, shift away from car use towards excellent public transport, walking or
cycling. The scale of change needed means that Stockport will need to focus upon reducing the number of cars on the road.
- Remaining car, van or lorry journeys should be in the lowest-possible carbon emitting vehicles
- Planning policies e.g. The Merton rule (10% renewable on new build)
- Local Energy companies for low carbon heat and power
NB. The National Electricity Grid is 40% efficient whereas local electricity grids are 85% efficient.
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Stockport FoE News - Sec. State Chris Huhne MP visits Stockport to discuss carbon measures
Shortly after members of Stockport Friends of the Earth had addressed the Environment Partnership in the Council Chamber of Stockport Town Hall, in the next room, Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, Chris Huhne MP met members of AGMA to help forge local carbon policies.
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Put your hoof down for rainforest-free meat and dairy.
Members of Stockport Friends of the Earth met with Stockport's MP Andrew Stunell in October to seek his continuing support for our Food Chain campaign for rain-forest free food.
Thanks to Kate and the rest of the herd that came along.
This autumn, MPs will be voting on a new law to break the hidden link between animal feed in factory farms and wildlife and rainforest destruction in South America.
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Stockport Friends of the Earth are calling on Government to revolutionise the way we produce meat and dairy.
We want Government to shift money away from the factory farms that hold the damaging chain together - and support thriving, planet-friendly farming.
We are continuing the work started in 2009 when the people of Stockport signed over 1000 of our postcards to local MPs to show their support for our Food Chain campaign..
Local MP Andrew Gwynne (pictured) getting cracking in Reddish!
Copenhagen Accord and Targets
Following the conclusion of the climate change talks in Copenhagen in December 2009,
the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) has received
submissions of national pledges to cut and limit greenhouse gases by 2020 from 55 countries.
These countries together account for 78 per cent of global emissions from energy use.
Industrialised countries listed their mid-term targets to cut emissions (pdf)
Developing countries communicated information on their nationally appropriate mitigation actions (pdf)
So what happened next...
The sixteenth Conference of the Parties (COP) and the sixth Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol (CMP) was held in Cancun, Mexico, from 29 November to 10 December 2010.
Outcome - DECC version
Outcome - FoE version