Havant FOE Newsletter - March 2024

FOE Talk: Regenerating our local harbours: from streams to sea grasses

Do join us on 20th March at 7 pm in Havant United Reformed Church in Elm Lane. The meeting will include a quick Havant FOE AGM so we can share our annual report and finances.

After the AGM has finished there is a talk  from one of Havant Climate Alliance’s founders, marine biologist, Rayner Piper, who’ll tell us about his work in our harbours, regenerating sea grass and saltmarsh, and monitoring the streams that feed them.

He’ll also share you could get involved.

2024 General Election

We all know there’s an election coming soon and all the big campaigning organisations are getting campaigns ready. At the moment, it looks as if the main political parties have decided they need to hide the climate and nature crisis away in a back room to avoid turning off voters.

We need to tell them that there are millions out here who see the dangers vividly and want to give their vote to climate action?

The South East Climate Alliance have produced an Election Toolkit providing a simple guide to four of the national campaigns that have been launched recently to get climate onto the election agenda. It summarises their aims and approach, and explains how can you get involved.

United for Warm Homes: Health inequalities report

Friends of the Earth are asking candidates to sign a pledge calling for more a nationwide home insulation programme with funding of at least £6 billion a year.

Sign here the United for Homes pledge

United for Warm Homes have also just published their report. This shows 9.6 million UK households are living in heat-leaking, badly insulated homes and have incomes below the minimum required for an acceptable standard of living.

People struggling with rising energy costs are most likely to suffer from increased health risks. Cold homes are associated with mental health conditions and social isolation. They double the risk of adults developing new mental health conditions and triple the risk of exacerbating existing conditions.

The crisis is costing society tens of billions each year through ill health, increased bills, lost productivity and carbon emissions.

You can read an executive summary of the report here

Havant Borough Big Green Week – 8th to 16th June

Our plans for the week are coming together but success relies on lots of local groups organising a green activity during the week, ideally involving swapping. The Climate Coalition have produced action guides with lots of ideas and some great visuals as well as packs for schools – primary and secondary editions.

Visit the Big Green Week website

Beetles, Butterflies and Bugs: our Art competition

We are organising an art competition for Green Week as we want to encourage young people to think about the wonderful insect life around us. There will be prizes in different age groups and we aim to display the art around the Borough.

Visit the Beetles, Butterflies and Bugs – Art competition page

Real Climate Solutions – Youtube Lectures

A series of short YouTube lectures on Real Climate Solutions are available via the Tick Zero website. The lectures consist of 6 10 minute films commissioned by the government, and made by Cambridge University “seem the clearest, most concise, no-nonsense presentation of what the Climate Emergency is and what solutions are real and what are not.”

See also the linked report for enormous up-to-date detail in areas such as cement, steel, plastics.

Britain Talks Climate

This is a toolkit to support any organisation that wants to engage the British public on climate change.

“evidence-based, shared and strategic understanding and – against a backdrop of growing concern about polarisation – ways to engage across the whole of society”

View the summary here

There’s a Knowledge Sharing Session on 28th March at 6.30pm on-line, free.

Book here on the SECA website

Future Homes need standards

The Government is holding a consultation on new building standards for new homes built from 2025. The MCS Foundation has prepared a consultation response which highlights; the need for meaningful deployment of solar panels, the inclusion of electric vehicle charging points and heat pumps.

They would like as many people and organisations as possible to submit the pre prepared response.

It’s quick and easy to do.

The Big Plastic Count – 11th to 17th March

count all the plastic you throw away for a week, you can help gather the vital evidence we need to convince UK ministers, supermarkets and big brands to lead the way at global talks that could finally phase out plastic production for good.

find out more here

The Great British Spring Clean – 15th to 31st March

Make your pledge to fill a bag with litter on the Keep Britain Tidy website, then grab a bag, pop on some gloves and clean up a green area near you!

Find out more here on the Keep Britain Tidy website.

Food Waste Action Week – 18th to 23rd March

Join Love Food’s campaign by choosing to buy loose fruit and vegetables to reduce food waste.  Research has shown that if all potatoes, bananas and apples were sold loose. we could save 70,000 tonnes of food waste.

Visit the Food Waste Action week via the Love Food Hate Waste website.

Hampshire County Council budget

The County Council needs to find at least £130 million a year to cover its costs. They invite you to comment on some of the cuts they plan. The consultation ends on 31st March.

Some of the proposals have implications for addressing climate change, such as:

  • cutting all subsidies for bus routes that are not commercially viable, and community transport like Dial-a-Ride
  • reducing the brightness of streetlights and switching off for 2 more hours during the night
  • closing some Household Waste Recycling Centres and charging for using them

Read the Hampshire County Council Budget Consultation 2024

Hampshire Forest Partnership

The Partnership have put some money aside to create Community Orchards across Hampshire.

If your group has permission to plant trees on a publicly accessible site in Hampshire, email [email protected] or see this talk about all they do (thank you Alton Climate Action Network)

Visit the Hampshire Forest Partnership website

National Meetings

Don’t forget that Friends of the Earth nationally run lots of online meetings which you can find Here

Havant Climate Alliance Meetings

We’d love to see more people at our local planning meetings which are on the 6th and 13th March via Zoom.

If you would like to join in the meetings, please contact [email protected] if you’d like the link.

As well as the campaigns above, we are working on links with the Council and getting plans together for the General Election.

We are also challenging the water companies over effluent in the Solent and their plans to pump recycled effluent into the new reservoir, as well as keeping an eye on other planning applications.