Are you interested in winning the right for local people to have a say in local budgets for building resilience?

We have received the following email from “The People’s budget.”

Billions of pounds of our money is being used by public bodies without any involvement of local people. “The People’s Budget” campaign is about helping you understand how to persuade your local council, health organisation, police force or housing provider to give us a significant say.

When more people are involved in how public money is spent better decisions are made. That’s what Participatory Budgeting is all about. But so far we have only been trusted with pretty small amounts.

Over the coming months we will be working with community, residents and tenants groups to help you win:

1. Any kind of Participatory Budgeting in my area
2. Making sure it is repeated again
3. Participatory Budgeting across the whole authority area
4. 1% of the budget is decided using Participatory Budgeting

How can you make it happen? First you could help us to organise a workshop for your local group. We have held seven so far (in Dudley, St.Helen’s, Tameside, Leeds, Tyneside, London).

The People’s Budget
We want a say in how our money’s spent

Find out more at www.peoplesbudget.org.uk
follow the campaign at www.twitter.com/peoplesbudgetuk
join the conversation with other activists at www.facebook.com/peoplesbudget
and www.nationalCAN.ning.com/group/thepeoplesbudget

http://uniteddiversity.mirocommunity.org/category/permaculture

Welcome to the 80^th LCCN newsletter! These come to you regularly with updates on what the Network is doing, other developments and, if you tell us, what you’re doing. We’re keen to find contributors who could send us an update (monthly?) on whats happening in their region that may be of interest elsewhere. And please forward this to anyone who may be interested, reminding them that they can get their own copy at: www.lowcarboncommunities.net

Conference follow-up
Thanks for the feedback and comments on the conference. A further request to anyone who took notes in any session or who has comments on sessions please do send us your thoughts to: hello@lowcarboncommunities.net

It will all feed into our report on ‘developing local climate partnerships’.

Community FITS update
Various people have spoken with staff at DECC a few times over the past few weeks  on the phase 2 consultation, and the issue of ‘community definition’. Some relevant points arising may be of interest.;

• On the community FiT, they have received a lot of input and don’t need more right now. They are not engaging on this partly due to the ‘uncertainty’ around the legal challenge.
• The community FiT is likely to be about encouraging more generation, not about delivering an uplift purely for social benefit. This is an important issue.
• From DECC’s comments it seems the important thing is to quantify the benefits from community energy and make clear the potential scale of development – does a community turbine encourage people to become more energy efficient? Can income be reinvested in energy efficiency or more renewables? Can communities deliver MW or GW?
• The legal challenge is still being blamed for the delay to the phase 2 consultation

Clearly the answer is for the cap on the budget to be raised, which is something many organisations are now calling for.

More FITS fallout…
PLANS to build solar panels on around 4,000 homes in the city have been scrapped by Liverpool Council in the face of Government cutbacks…..
http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/liverpool-news/regional-news/2012/01/23/government-cuts-see-liverpool-council-cut-4-000-homes-solar-power-building-plan-99623-30178796/#ixzz1kNYCEqUc

Deadline for Climate Week Awards fast approaching
The deadlines for the prestigious Climate Week Awards is less than a week away – 5pm on Monday 30th January 2012. What category will you enter? Best Community Initiative? Best Event? Or maybe Most Inspirational Leader?

Maybe you are involved with an ambitious community energy project or know someone in your community who deserves recognition for their pioneering spirit and ambition. You can nominate yourself or a third party for any Category providing, where practicable, permission has been given.
Free and simple to apply, make sure the best work is recognised this Climate Week (12-18th March 2012). Your entry guide can be accessed here.

For more details please call 0203 397 2601 or visit www.climateweek.com/awards

Major grid development in Scotland
Scottish power’s plans for grid upgrade (more pylons….?) involve plans (among other things) to connect offshore and onshore wind generation in Scotland of around 11 GW – that’s a huge increase! (enough to power over 6 million homes).
http://www.scottishpower.com/PressReleases_2274.htm

PURE the Clean Planet Trust
PURE the Clean Planet Trust is a registered charity (no1112249) which exists to promote the reduction of carbon emissions. We have recently launched the PURE Community Energy Fund to help communities, charities and other not-for-profit community focused organisations overcome the upfront costs of installing renewable energy. The PURE Community Energy Fund is a revolving loan fund taking money donated to the charity from corporates and individuals and using it to provide low interest loans to qualifying organisations.  As the loan is repaid the money is then used to help the next community and so on. Loans are available at 4% APR for up to £50,000 and 50% of the project costs. Any organisation interested in applying for a loan is encouraged to visit our website and complete the simple expression of interest form which asks for some basic information about the project and applicant organisation. Once we have received this we will be in touch to discuss your project in more detail and potentially invite you to complete the formal loan application process.
http://www.puretrust.org.uk/

In Transition 2.0
A new fim on transition initiatives, ‘In Transition 2.0′ is about to be unveiled to the world! It draws together stories from around the world showing Transition initiatives at the various stages of transitioning their communities. In spite of telling stories from around the world, no-one set foot on an aeroplane in order to make this film, local camera-people being enlisted to film each sequence, making this one of the lowest-carbon international films ever produced.

In early February, each of the initiatives whose stories are told in the film have been invited to host a preview. The premiere of ‘In Transition 2.0′ will be at a high profile event in late March (still under wraps). The DVD will be released around the time of the premiere. Find out more and view the trailer (completed just yesterday) here http://www.transitionnetwork.org/news/2012-01-05/transition-20

BP look at the future…
The Time magazine article below is worth a read, with plenty of useful links. It’s based around BP’s release of their annual Energy Outlook, hardly an unbiased document but a source of some useful stats for energy- focused people
http://ecocentric.blogs.time.com/2012/01/19/the-global-energy-supply-is-getting-greener-its-just-not-happening-fast-enough/

This one in Time is less directly relevant but very interesting:
http://ecocentric.blogs.time.com/2012/01/22/political-pollution-how-bad-air-equals-social-unrest-in-china/?iid=ec-article-mostpop1

NASA finds 2011 ninth-warmest year on record
The global average surface temperature in 2011 was the ninth warmest since 1880, according to NASA scientists. The finding continues a trend in which nine of the 10 warmest years in the modern meteorological record have occurred since the year 2000.
It’s all here: http://climate.nasa.gov/news/index.cfm?FuseAction=ShowNews&NewsID=668

Carbon Leapfrog job opportunity
Carbon Leapfrog has the following vacancy for a full time professional fundraiser with experience of key relationship management. Sitting within the Executive Team, the successful candidate will be responsible for implementing the current funding plan and shaping the organisation’s future funding strategy. Given the objectives of the Charity, this will involve creatively sourcing and securing both financial and professional support for the charity.
The role covers three key areas:

• Securing current and future funding from diverse sources (from philanthropic funds, through high net worth individuals to corporate firms and supporting NGOs)
• Sourcing relevant professionals to provide pro bono services for our pipeline of excellent, innovative Carbon reducing projects
• Maintaining relationships with our major partners and corporate firms as well as actively seeking out future ventures and collaborations
• Deadline for application: Wednesday 8^th February 2012

To view the full job description please click here
An application form can be downloaded at: http://carbonleapfrog.org/carbon-leapfrog-vacancies/
Contact: Helena Farstad (helenafarstad@carbonleapfrog.org)

And if you find this newsletter useful, please copy it to colleagues who might also like it!

Do you want to be a featured group on the LCCN website?

We have started a new featured groups page on the LCCN website here. RURENER is the current group featured, check the page out if you want to find out more about them.
If you’d like to be featured on the website, send us some text now. This should be broadly structured like this:

• Who we are
• What we’re doing
• How we involve our community
• The results we’ve achieved

250 words max, and please include a photo and logo.

Please email your details to – hello@lowcarboncommunities.net

Building LCCN – your help needed
This newsletter now goes out weekly to more than 600 people and groups, but we’d like to get it to many more. You can help!
If you find the newsletter useful, why not forward it to other people you know, either in your group or within  your network. Let them know it comes out weekly, it’s free and all they have to do to get it is to join the network…by sending an email requesting a membership form to - membership@lowcarboncommunities.net
Or you can download the membership form by clicking here.


LCCN Facebook page

Please like the Low Carbon Communities facebook page here

General Email: hello@lowcarboncommunities.net

Website: lowcarboncommunities.net                                                             24/01/2012

Action Surrey is looking for volunteers wishing to learn a new skill and train to be Home Energy auditors. A checklist and audit template is provided along with a CRB check and free training. You can undertake audits in the area where you live; they take about 1- 2 hours and a written report is submitted to the householder.

When 24^th of February 2012

Where Woking Borough Council

Civic Offices
Gloucester Square
GU21 6YL Woking
United Kingdom

Time 9:15 (start at 9:45) – 17:00

To Book http://homeenergauditraining2012.eventbrite.com

Notes:

Action Surrey is funded by the Surrey Improvement Partnership and the eco-open homes event is supported by ICLEI, a network of sustainable cities operating worldwide to raise awareness of saving energy and other environmental challenges.

Oak Tree House is one of the only fully functional demonstration properties in the South of England and has been transformed from an ordinary three-bedroom detached house to a show case property for low carbon living. Throughout the property a range of low cost measures such as LED lighting and low energy appliances have been introduced to help reduce the amount of electricity used in the house.

The LCCN Conference…
….seems to have been very popular. We thought it was great and feedback has been very good: 42% of those of you who came enjoyed it ‘very much’, 50% went for ‘much’, the remaining 8% were ‘OK’ and no-one didn’t enjoy it.

Jonathon Porritt’s speech was widely described as inspiring: he stressed the importance of linking on the ground action with political engagement as being the only way in which radical transformation ever happens. He also highlighted the pace of innovation on low carbon technologies and that we are getting ever nearer the ‘Grid Parity Moment’ when solar PV produces power as cheaply as fossil fuels, which will have major impacts on energy investment.  His critique of Minister Greg Barker and his increasing tendency to sound like the Daily Mail was very timely.  See below for more.

Over 30 people spoke and facilitated workshops – our thanks to you all. Lots of ideas emerged on issues such as the Green Deal, local networking, community buying, fuel poverty, tackling the issue of how carbon allowances for community energy projects may be misused and more. Above all, the value of sharing experiences seemed to be proved yet again. Now the work to make all this happen needs to start….

Where to next?
A shopping list of ideas is emerging as people write up workshops. That doesn’t mean we have the resources to do it all so some hard discussions will be needed. The LCCN Management Group will meet in February. A working meeting to follow up the conference in March will also be our AGM – watch this newsletter for details.  Meanwhile…

• A summary of Jonathon Porritt’s speech is available here
• Sustainable Witney have blogged on the conference and more promised athttp://sustainablewitney.org.uk/  (anyone else writing it up please let us know)
• Twittering people on the day were using the hashtags #LCCN and #LCCNconf  (what do you mean you don’t use Twitter……)
• Presentations and reports will appearing on our site
• The MG will be discussing potential tie-ins to the Project Dirt social network for green action (they did a good presentation at the conference) see www.projectdirt.com
• Our Facebook page will be back on the website front page – link in and comment now.

Meanwhile…
Those useful people at Clickgreen have some good stories this week:

• List of natural disasters and extreme weather makes 2011 the worst on record

http://www.clickgreen.org.uk/analysis/general-analysis/123027-devastating-toll-of-natural-disasters-and-extreme-weather-makes-2011-the-worst-on-record.html this includes some useful points from the insurance industry.  

• Feed-in Tariff stalemate is costing UK’s renewable industry £25k-a-day

http://www.clickgreen.org.uk/analysis/business-analysis/123038-feed-in-tariff-stalemate-is-costing-uk%5Cs-renewable-industry-25k-a-day.html

For more on the Feed In Tariffs  see the Friends of the Earth view here: http://www.foe.co.uk/news/solar_cut_case_appeal_34567.html

DECC LEAF fund hugely popular
Round 1 of the DECC Local Energy Assessment Fund was very popular with 230+ applications. The down side of this is that there was far more demand than could be met – over twice as much money was asked for as was available. This meant in turn that the projects that got funded were pretty excellent. Full details of the winners are just now on the DECC website at:
http://www.decc.gov.uk/en/content/cms/news/pn12_002/pn12_002.aspx

Meanwhile there is still £5M+ available for round 2, which closes in 3 days time (don’t just sit there reading this! Finish that application now!).
See - www.greencommunitiescc.org.uk/

Award for Best Community Initiative goes to…
Entries for the Climate Week Awards are now open! These prestigious awards celebrate the UK’s most innovative, effective, and ambitious organisations, communities and individuals and their outstanding efforts to combat climate change.
Together, the winners and finalists of the Climate Week Awards offer powerful illustrations of what can be achieved to make Britain a more sustainable, low-carbon society. The winners of the Best Community Initiative 2011, Settle Hydro, won much deserved recognition for their work setting up a community-owned hydroelectricity scheme in a small North Yorkshire market town.
This year’s Awards will be judged by an impressive panel of judges including Paul Gilding (Former CEO, Greenpeace International), Professor Julia Slingo (Chief Scientist at the Met Office) and Tim Smit (Chief Executive at the Eden Project). Through celebrating the very best innovations, practices and leadership, the Awards aim to inspire more people and organisations to take crucial steps for tackling climate change. If you are you working on an inspirational community project, or know someone who is, why not apply?
For more details please call 0203 397 2601, or email awards@climateweek.com. To download the 2012 Awards Entry Pack click here.

Green energy investment soars to $260bn
Jonathon stressed the rapid pace of innovation. New data shows worldwide funding of green energy projects rose by 5% last year – this story has the details:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/jan/12/green-energy-investment-increasesClimate, coal and health
Jonathon also stressed the way in which climate action in the USA is being pushed by health concerns. He may have seen this report which shows how ‘Simple, inexpensive measures to cut emissions of two common pollutants will slow global warming, save millions of lives and boost crop production around the world’ http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/study-simple-measures-could-reduce-global-warming-save-lives/2012/01/12/gIQAtcKztP_story.html

More training news
We’re always happy to promote relevant training. Send us the details.
Talk Action  have the following courses shortly:
Engaging Communities on Climate Change London, Friday 30th March
Facilitation Training – 2nd  Feb.
Communicating Renewable Energy – 15th Feb.

And if you find this newsletter useful, please copy it to colleagues who might also like it!

Do you want to be a featured group on the LCCN website?

We have started a new featured groups page on the LCCN website here. RURENER is the current group featured, check the page out if you want to find out more about them.
If you’d like to be featured on the website, send us some text now. This should be broadly structured like this:

• Who we are
• What we’re doing
• How we involve our community
• The results we’ve achieved

250 words max, and please include a photo and logo.

Please email your details to – hello@lowcarboncommunities.net

Building LCCN – your help needed
This newsletter now goes out weekly to more than 600 people and groups, but we’d like to get it to many more. You can help!
If you find the newsletter useful, why not forward it to other people you know, either in your group or within  your network. Let them know it comes out weekly, it’s free and all they have to do to get it is to join the network…by sending an email requesting a membership form to - membership@lowcarboncommunities.net
Or you can download the membership form by clicking here.


LCCN Facebook page

Please like the Low Carbon Communities facebook page here

General Email: hello@lowcarboncommunities.net
Website: lowcarboncommunities.net                                                             17/01/2012

“The magazine looks at autobiographical evidence from all strata of global society and then provides editorial comment from a loosely environmental perspective. Sociological, feminist and other perspectives are also included. The general view is sympathetic to permaculture and the establishment of permaculture worldwide. The feel is currently quite academic, but this is slowly changing to something more accessible, in response to continued feedback from contributors and readers.”

The magazine is said to be highly relevant to Transition Initiatives.

The publishers are currently seeking more buyers for issue number 2, in order to fund issue number 3 (for which material already collated for April). The magazine has a circulation of under 300 copies at present, but is attracting increasing interest. They hope to break the 500 barrier for Issue 4, out in August.

The publishers are also seeking more autobiographical evidence, mainly in the form of diaries, and would be particularly interested to hear from diary-writing transitioners.

Issue number 2 is 40 pages long including illustrations and features an Artist’s Statement from Andy White and a rather stunning photocopy of one of his paintings. It also features an interview with a female horse drawn traveller and the the diary of a part time doctor working on issues of sustainability in her home and community.

For more information or to purchase a copy of the magazine, at £4 plus £1 postage and packaging, please contact transitionvisionmagazine [at] gmail [dot] com.

Please note that the publishers would also be immensely greatful for diarists, of all ages aged 5-105, from any walk of life (they don’t have to be sympathetic towards the environment as it is up to the editors to discern underlying themes. However transitioner diarists most welcome.)

It shows a town surrounded by food growing.

Presumably Farnham was quite similar.

For Rob’s further commentary on the map, click here: http://transitionculture.org/2012/01/13/what-it-looks-like-when-food-grows-everywhere/

The Surrey Reuse Network offers a wide range of good quality items at affordable prices and aims to increase the amount of furniture and white goods that are reused, thus diverting 2,000 tonnes from landfill.

Made up of a group of six charities, the network aims to find new homes for donated furniture and kitchen appliances, as well as offering training and employment opportunities and helping local families in need.

Buying reusable furniture and kitchen appliances is great value, good for the environment and hidden treasures may be found.

For more information, visit www.surreyreusenetwork.org.uk