Scottish Quakers at their Parliament urging climate plans be actioned
Quaker Climate Activist Recalled to Prison
Faith in Action Team Celebrate Quaker Witnessing 2024
Climate Choir at the British Museum
Leicester Friends in Christmas Witness
UK Climate Change Committee Progress Report to Parliament 2024
QUNO at COP29 Report - Parts 1 and 2
2024 Round-up for Friends of the Earth Supporters
Norway pauses plan to deep sea mine in the Arctic
COP29 - Wildlife Trusts UK Evaluation
QUNO Briefing Paper published re Carbon Dioxide Removal
Successful Court Action by Greenpeace
Wildlife Trusts UK Summary of COP16 Podcast
Latest EQAT USA Vanguard campaigning
Action by EQAT re Vanguard investment companies
Midlands Green Quakers Network
UK takes step towards a Strong Global Plastics Treaty
Goodbye to Coal-Fired Energy in the UK
Badly Insulated UK Homes - CO2 Impact
QUNO's Presence at IPCC 61st Session - August 2024
Northern Friends Peace Board - peace & sustainability linked resources
Scottish Quakers urge Scottish Parliament to 'put climate plans into action' (article from 'Quake!' 9 Jan 2025)
Stop Climate Chaos Scotland gathered outside the Scottish Parliament on 7 January, asking them to show global leadership and fulfil its promises. Last year the Scottish government announced it was ditching its legal target reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 75% by 2030 and delayed promised climate action. Now Quakers in Scotland have joined others in urging action that makes homes warmer, cleaner transport easier and helps secure good jobs in green industries.
Quaker Climate Activist recalled to Prison (article from Faith in Action Newsletter 21 December 2024)
Bristol Quaker Gaie Delap (77), jailed for a climate protest on the M25 in 2022, made headlines this month after being recalled to prison from home detention because no electronic tag was small enough to fit her wrist. Highlighting the failings of a justice system, Head of Witness and Worship Oliver Robertson said: “We would be grateful if Prisons Minister James Timpson would intervene to find a common sense solution that keeps this nonviolent citizen out of our overcrowded prisons."
Meanwhile two Quakers who had protested nonviolently were sentenced in recent weeks: Pasha Bell of Exeter Quaker Meeting was sentenced to 22 months for a Just Stop Oil protest; and Viv Shah of Leicester Quaker Meeting was fined and handed a two-year suspended sentence for blocking the entrance to Kingsbury Oil Terminal.
Faith in Action Team Celebrate Quaker Witnessing 2024
See link to their Youtube clip summarising the witnessing of Quakers in the UK on climate/environment in 2024.
Climate Choir at the British Museum (article from Faith in Action Newsletter 21 December 2024)
Bristol’s Climate Choir took their protest-in-song to the halls of the British Museum last month. On Saturday 30 November, the Climate Choir Movement rehearsed at Friends House before forming a flashmob in the museum in protest over its continued relationship with BP. Last year the British Museum announced it would no longer host BP-branded exhibitions, but it accepted £50m from the oil giant toward its ten-year development plan.
Leicester Friends witnessed at a street Christmas Fair placing a stall outside the front steps of their Meeting Houise with a 'climate justice' banner and provided a choice of 6 stamps made from lino-cuts along with stamp pads. Each had an animal and a word to describe what the world needs to prevent run-away climate catastrophe. Passersby were invited to make a stamp for themselves and another to add to a large painted tree. They expected to attract children but many adults stopped and joined in. For the full article see The Friend, News section.
UK Climate Change Committee - 2024 Progress Report to Parliament (published July) Posted 23 December 2024
Executive summary
The UK has a successful track record of emissions reductions, having met all its targets so far. Territorial emissions have now fallen by over half. We should celebrate this, and the Committee applauds the efforts of successive governments to achieve it. However last year, despite some progress, the previous Government signalled a slowing of pace and reversed or delayed key policies. The new Government will have to act fast to hit the country’s commitments.
Recently, we’ve seen the wettest 18 months on record in England. Thousands of acres of farmland have been submerged for extended periods, leading to the loss of crops and animals. The impact of this is expected to be felt well into 2025. Livelihoods have been disrupted and lives lost in the UK and overseas as a direct consequence of climate impacts, which are becoming more severe.
The cost of key low-carbon technologies is falling, creating an opportunity for the UK to boost investment, reclaim global climate leadership and enhance energy security by accelerating take-up. British-based renewable energy is the cheapest and fastest way to reduce vulnerability to volatile global fossil fuel markets. The faster we get off fossil fuels, the more secure we become.
Adapting to the physical risks of climate change is a pre-requisite for delivering the path to Net Zero. Otherwise, plans risk being less effective or more costly. The UK’s Third National Adaptation Programme (NAP3) lacks the pace and ambition to address growing climate risks which we are already experiencing. NAP3 must be strengthened with a vision that includes clear objectives and targets. Government policymaking needs to be reorganised so that adaptation becomes a fundamental aspect and is embedded in other national policy objectives.
Progress in reducing emissions 2024 Report to Parliament - Climate Change Committee
2024 Round-up for Friends of the Earth Supporters (Posted 18 December 2024)
Friends of the Earth interim Chief Exec, Jamie Peters, has posted a thank you on Youtube to Friends of the Earth supporters, with highlights of the work undertaken on behalf of the environment, peace and sustainability in 2024
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTv5IFxxing
Friends of the Earth Cymru (Wales) has been supporting climate change action for 40 years - see their anniversary message
Norway pauses plan to mine the deep sea in the Arctic (Posted 6 December 2024)
Norway has just paused its plans to mine the deep sea in the Arctic after campaigning from activists, environmentalists, scientists, fishermen. Greenpeace's 200,000 supporters called for stronger ocean protection and helped deliver this historic win. The Norwegian government had opened up an area of the Arctic seabed, roughly the size of the UK, for deep sea mining exploration. Halting these plans is an important step in protecting one of the last untouched places on earth. Greenpeace are asking supporters to call on Keir Starmer to help put the global oceans off-limits to deep sea mining for good?
COP29 'The Ups and Downs' Wildlife Trusts UK Evaluation (Posted 18 December 2024)
Kathryn Brown, director of climate change and evidence for the Wildlife Trusts UK, evaluates the ups and downs of the recent COP29 in Azerbijan for climate and nature.
Successful Court Action by Greenpeace (Posted 20 November 2024)
Last week Greenpeace were in court taking on oil giants Shell and Equinor to stop their illegal oil and gas fields in UK waters. Their huge people-powered 80,000 signature strong petition helped show the public are opposed to Shell and Equinor’s illegal drilling - each and every signature strengthened their case.
Shell and Equinor accepted that their new fields are unlawful, but argued they should be allowed to continue developing them because otherwise they'd face financial losses. They were asking the public to put up with climate damages so they could continue making profits on illegal developments.
Greenpeace argued against their justification and pointed out they aren’t above the rule of law.
The judge's decision is awaited, it could take some months.
This is not a one-off - Greenpeace are determined to continue taking on the Big Oil giants driving the climate crisis.
News from Earth Quaker Action Team (EQAT), USA re Vanguard campaigning (Posted 20 November 2024)
Visited Vanguard’s headquarters in Malvern, PA today, 20 Nov, to tap into our power to do what's right and invite Vanguard CEO Salim Ramji to do the same. With space for grief, grounding, and joy, we will embrace our power as an active part of making history.
Invited Quaker Friends to join EQAT's national campaign partner, Stop the Money Pipeline, virtually – Wednesday, November 20th at 7:00 pm ET / 4:00 pm PT – for a conversation about the election results and how our movement will continue to pressure fossil fuel financiers to make the changes we need.
Wildlife Trust UK - COP16 Summary and looking forward to COP29 (posted 20 November 2024)
Click here UK Wildlife Trust Summary of COP16 Nature COP for an interesting podcast discussion between two Wildlife Trust UK staff summarising what came out of the nature COP, COP16 in Columbia, and a brief look forward to the climate COP, COP29 in Azerbijan. They will present a further summary from COP29 shortly after the conference ends.
QUNO publishes paper on Carbon Dioxide Removal (Posted 20 November 2024)
Quaker United Nations Office latest newsletter includes an article and link to their publication of a carbon dioxide removal briefing paper as COP29 takes place in Azerbijan.
Midlands Green Quakers network (posted 24 October 2024 - taken from Quakers in Britain, communities, news webpage)
Concern about the environment has moved Quakers in the Midlands to create a network to explore sustainability and climate justice together.
The group meets monthly on Zoom, providing Friends with opportunities to share stories and ideas, offer support, and build a shared sense of purpose and community. Each month Sarah Shaw, Local Development Worker, arranges for guest speakers to talk about their climate justice activities. Recent presentations have included Berkhamstead EcoHub, Footsteps: Faiths for a Low-Carbon Future, and Quaker Concern Over Population.
For this autumn's sessions, Sarah is facilitating a series of workshops on the theme of ecological spirituality. She is also co-organising a one-day retreat in Leicester in mid-October :'Hope in the Dark: Spiritual Nurture for the Earth Crisis' This will provide Friends from the region with an opportunity to spend time together in spiritual exploration and fellowship.
USA Earth Quaker Action Team recent campaigning re Vanguard and its investment companies (Posted 2 November 2024)
Arizona, Georgia, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Wisconsin, and virtually: they took action in more places than ever before in this campaign for the Vanguard’s Choices and Consequences national day of action. With art installations and letter deliveries, meetings for worship and visits to Vanguard investment companies causing harm, they were united across geography to call on Vanguard to change course and invest in a liveable future.
See the full report and Youtube clip here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTMlviva3Hg
UK takes a huge step towards a strong Global Plastics Treaty (Posted 18 October 2024)
News update from The Big Plastic Count : In a MASSIVE win for all of us who care about ending plastic pollution, last month the UK signed the Bridge to Busan declaration. This is a statement signed by 40 countries at the United Nations affirming the need for global cuts to plastic production.
It’s the first big decision from the new Labour government on the Global Plastics Treaty, and it hopefully shows that they’re ready to take the plastic waste problem seriously after the dismal record of the last government.
USA President Biden, has said USA will sign up to the Treaty. USA has previously not been a signatory to the treaty. USA is the biggest producer of plastics.
The next round of treaty negotiations is in November.
Decarbonising Local Festivals (Posted 12 October 2024)
Arts & Culture East Devon and Exmouth Festival are setting out a new blueprint to decarbonise local festivals.
Exmouth Festival organisers - Exmouth Town Council, wanted to understand the scale of their previous festival emissions and how to reduce it. By working with South West Energy and Environment Group, they created a bespoke calculator tool. It is unique to festivals, enabling them to calculate their carbon footprint, identify categories where reductions can be made and monitor changes going forward. These steps resulted in a 10% carbon reduction of this year’s festival, which is set to continue reducing year on year.
Goodbye to coal-fired energy in the UK (Posted 26 September 2024) Monday, 30 September, will mark the end of an era, when the last coal-fired power station closes, Friends of the Earth report. This is another step towards preventing climate/environmental catastrophe. Friends of the Earth also recently won a legal case against the planned Cumbrian coal mine, with the Judge deeming it contrary to the intentions of the UK Climate Act.
Badly Insulated UK Homes - the CO2 impact (Posted 26 September 2024) Friends of the Earth research claims UK’s badly insulated homes release the same carbon emissions as Denmark. They say that after a decade of failing to upgrade millions of poorly insulated homes, the UK housing stock pours 30 million tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere every year. That is the same amount as the whole of Denmark emits annually (population roughly 6 million).
If the 14 million homes most in need of insulation were upgraded, these climate-wrecking emissions could be prevented, and people would be protected from sky-high bills and ill-health.
The Daily Mirror published an article in their paper recently, using the research findings of Friends of the Earth.
Postcode Gardeners - Friends of the Earth Project (Posted 26 September 2024) Friends of the Earth have been supported by The Co-operative Bank to kick-start community gardening in the West Gorton and Wythenshawe areas of Manchester. These two new Postcode Gardeners are part of their programme to restore greenery and wildlife in over 1,000 nature-deprived spaces across England and Wales. The hope is that communities will be helped to reconnect with each other and nature, and bring wildlife back to urban streets.
Watch their video showcasing the Manchester Postcode Gardener launch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjwRVUc51D4
QUNO Geneva's Presence at the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) 61st Session (Posted 20 September 2024 from 'News from QUNO' e-newsletter)
QUNO Geneva’s Human Impacts of Climate Change Programme, speaking on behalf of Friends World Committee for Consultation, took part in the 61st Session of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in Sofia, Bulgaria from the 27th of July to 2nd of August. Our FWCC interventions and the IPCC Meeting summary are available (to read via the hyper-link below).
At this session, the panel had to decide on the programme of work for the 7th Assessment Cycle (AR7) and approve outlines of two IPCC products: the Methodology Report on Short Lived Climate Forcers and the Special Report on Climate Change and Cities.
Northern Friends Peace Board (UK) links to resources which relate to peace and sustainability combined issues: (Posted 31 July 2024)
What would a sensible security policy look like for the UK? https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/sensible-defence-offering-uk-labour-conservatives-climate-crisis-security
Women, peace and security and the climate change agenda https://www.worldvision.ca/stories/climate-change/women-peace-and-security-climate-change-agenda
Counting the environmental toll of war - and why peace is a climate solution https://johnmenadue.com/counting-the-environmental-toll-of-war-and-why-peace-is-a-climate-solution
Environmental wartime protection is essential to the protection of civilians https://www.icrc.org/en/unsc-arria-environment-peace
The Northern Friends Peace Board produce a regular round-up every 4-6 weeks. PDF versions with clickable links are available for their website at: https://nfpb.org.uk/resources/publicity-information-outreach
Mailing List: contact nfpb@gn.apc.org if you would to receive the information via email.