Residents call on MPs to vote for landmark Climate and Nature Bill

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Residents in Arundel and South Downs are calling on local MP Andrew Griffith to vote for a landmark piece of environmental legislation at its second reading on 24 January 2025. Members of Greening Steyning, Sussex Green Living, and South East Climate Alliance gathered this weekend for a photo opp to raise awareness about the Climate and Nature Bill (or “CAN” Bill).

If made law the CAN Bill would ensure that the UK has a joined up, science-led and people-powered plan to tackle climate change and nature loss, together. It is currently supported by 187 MPs, 372 local councils, 1,000 organisations, and over 1,200 leading UK climate and nature scientists.

The CAN Bill is being championed by Dr Roz Savage MP (Lib Dems), a longtime environmental campaigner and world record breaking solo ocean rower. She is supported by 11 co-sponsors from Labour, Conservatives, Lib Dems, Greens, Plaid Cymru, and SNP. Read more

Sussex Green Living and Envitia Horsham at the install of the Pollination Education Station in Horsham

Sussex is Really Buzzing

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Getting Sussex Buzzing again!

Sussex is really buzzing in 2024 thanks to exciting new collaborations between Sussex Green Living and local businesses: a new way of combining practical solutions to current and future environmental issues with community outreach, fundraising and business wellbeing. The Pollination Education Stations and Green Business Network have been developed in collaboration with Billingshurst based agency PMW Communications as part of their generous gift of pro bono work with 30 local charities to celebrate their 30 years in business.

One week after Sussex Green Living launched these new endeavours at the Sussex Green Hub, the first Pollination Education Station (PES) has been installed. Horsham based business, Envitia Ltd, a digital and data services company based in Horsham, will focus on one charity each quarter and on Monday 4th March, as part of their fundraising and collaboration with Sussex Green Living, they set up their Pollination Education Station, a haven for pollinators, with a community herb bed and an information board.

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Everything, Everywhere. All at once. 

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HDC candidates who have signed the SECA ABCD pledge ahead of the May 2023 Local Elections

In 1992 the world’s governments signed both climate and biodiversity conventions.  That was the time in history when the world, already after significant delay and procrastination, understood our predicament and agreed to do something about it.  Since then, no number of conventions, plans, targets, ambitions, or “COPs” (Conference of Parties signing the convention) has made any difference at all to global trends in climate breakdown and nature loss!

This is what failure looks like – 30 years of high ambition and low delivery.

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Sussex Green Living – Spreading like Wildflowers!

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This month’s Sussex Green Ideas webinar focused on the OnePlanet technology platform which is designed to enable users to understand how health, environment, community development and economy are interconnected, and support pathways to action.

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Local Elections – Who is supporting Climate and Nature Pledge?

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The Importance of Nature

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We all want a world where our climate is stable, nature thrives, and where all people have health, happiness, and prosperity – it’s our human right, right?

Unless we change things, we are on track to breach the 1.5°C temperature increase limit set by the Paris Agreement by 2030. The breach risks irreversible environmental degradation and runaway climate change that will affect all our societies and economies.

An essential ally against the climate crisis is nature. We are losing nature at an alarming and unprecedented rate. For anyone who has been watching David Attenborough’s latest BBC programme, Wild Isles, you will know that Britain is one of the most nature-depleted countries in the world.

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SECA Annual Event – Meeting of Hope

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It was the first time I had been to a SECA meeting, and it was inspiring to see over a hundred people working together for change.

We arrived in Brighton in an electric car, (my first time in such a conveyance), for the annual South East Climate Alliance or SECA meeting, the aim being to bring councils and communities together to address the issues related to climate breakdown and share successes and suggestions.

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What does COP 27 mean for us locally?

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As COP 27 begins, what’s happening locally to help save our beautiful little planet from doom?

Well, Horsham District Council held a Climate Action Day on 20th October to help prepare the parish councillors for what lies ahead for all of us.

Two thirds of the 32 parish councils in HD were represented, with 11 parishes not attending. So what progress has been made?

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Is the climate broken? Opinions from the people of Horsham

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Is the climate broken? Should the Government be doing more about it? Can ordinary citizens do anything? How will things look for our children and grandchildren?

To find out what the people of Horsham think, we spent a recent lunchtime patrolling the busy streets around the Swan Walk Shopping Centre.

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Climate & Ecology Bill

Climate Change hits Sussex as UK Declares First Red Extreme Heat Warning

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Climate and Ecology BillSoaring temperatures have left Sussex residents sweltering after an extreme heat warning raised the question whether this week has been the hottest on record in the region and what we should be doing to tackle climate change.

The national emergency came only a day after Sussex Green Living’s CEO Carrie Cort, her son and the charity’s Youth Eco Forum leader Tash Barns joined ‘Zero Hour’, a coalition of UK campaigners, world-leading scientists, academics and members of the public in Victoria Tower Garden next to the House of Lords in Westminster.

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COP26 Climate Summit:  The Road to Glasgow passes through Sussex by Geoff Barnard (first published in WSCT)

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The COP26 Climate Summit starts in Glasgow on November 1st.  It’s an opportunity that simply can’t be missed if the world is to get on top of climate change, and the multiple threats it poses to the planet, before it’s too late.

But who knew that crucial, behind-the-scenes, preparations for the conference are happening right here in Sussex, at Wiston House, just up the road from Steyning.

That’s where Wilton Park, a specialist offshoot of the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, is based.  In their 75th anniversary year, Wilton Park have been instrumental in convening a whole series of dialogues and meetings – mostly online, because of Covid – all geared to making the Glasgow Summit a success.

COP stands for the ‘Conference of the Parties’, and Glasgow is the 26th such event since the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) was signed in Rio at the 1992 Earth Summit. This one is particularly important.  It is the first time that governments will be asked to report back on progress on the pledges made at the Paris Summit in 2016, and ‘ratchet’ them up with new and more demanding targets. Read more

Los Cedros Reserve – An update and photos from our friend Nicola Peel

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Los Cedros Reserve – Andean cloud forest of Ecuador – UNDER THREAT

Our friend Nicola Peel has sent us an update and some incredible photos from her visit to the Los Cedros Reserve in the cloud forest of Ecuador which is now threatened by gold, copper and molybdenum mining.

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Local pupils tackle plastic waste issue in Parliament

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Primary Earth SummitPupils from 20 primary schools, two from West Sussex, told high-level politicians and industry leaders how they thought plastic waste could be reduced.

The children, from Seaside Primary School in Lancing, and Waterfield Primary School in Crawley, Read more