COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT IN TACKLING CLIMATE CHANGE

I went to an interesting workshop at the House of Commons yesterday, chaired by Julian Hunt and Hugh Dykes from the House of Lords. It had two aims:

1. To consider the benefits of demonstration projects that showcase the practical energy and ecological improvements that people can make in their homes, alongside providing information about climate change and its local effects (e.g. temperature and rainfall etc).
2. To consider how national and local government, UK companies, NGOs and community groups can more effectively increase community involvement in tackling and monitoring climate change and its environmental effects.

In Birmingham there are already "demonstration projects" of good practice (ask me for details if you don't know about them) and there are also plans to set up High Street Energy Advice Centres. Three or four organisations have been invited to offer this service but no news of progress has been received for a long time. I hope that city council officers will deal with this before the summer holidays.

We were told about a programme that could be promoted effectively by community groups in Birmingham, and would have a significant effect on reducing energy use. This is the Community Energy Saving Programme (CESP). The Programme will enable householders to improve the energy efficiency of their homes and pay for the work, with an additional levy on their fuel bills, over a longish period.

Subject to Parliamentary approval, the Programme will start in the autumn. The full report is available to download on the Department for Energy and Climate Change website. Gavin Purchas - Gavin.Purchas@decc.gsi.gov.uk - would like to hear from groups who are interested in playing a part in the project.