Earthing Faith Gathering Planning

North Hinksey Church

I was up at Diocesan Church House in Oxford this morning to help plan the first gathering of the Earthing Faith Network - the train at 9.40 was surprisingly empty so very easy with the bike and the last part of the cycle ride to North Hinksey is beautiful. Matt reported that there has been great interest in the SMeasure scheme for churches to monitor emissions with more than 100 expressions of interest and 37 churches now regsitered. There has also been interest from 50 schools.
Most of the meeting was spent planning the forthcoming gathering at Diocesan Church House on 2nd February which promises to be a wonderful opportunity for finding out what else is happening around the diocese, learning from others' experiences and building community.

Reading Means Business on Climate Change

This morning 125 representatives from Reading businesses, council, voluntary organisations, University etc gathered at the University of Reading to begin the process of drawing up Reading's next Climate Change Strategy.
The University's new Vice-Chancellor, Sir David Bell, opened proceedings and mentioned the University's pledge, made last year, to cut its emissions by 35% by 2015/16.

The event began with inspiring talks from Peter Harper of the Centre for Alternative Technology: 'Taking Decarbonisation Seriously: What Would it be Like?' (summarised below); and Dennis Moynihan of the Institute for Sustainability: 'Towards Low-Carbon Communities: Making the Magic Happen'.

Sally Coble of the Environment Agency and Ben Burfoot from RBC reported on the Reading Climate Change Partnership and the council's progress so far. The council's target is to reduce emissions by 50% by 2020. Within Reading nearly 2000 homes have been insulated through the Heatseekers initiative, 24 businesses have committed to 10:10, there are 24% fewer car trips to the centre of town compared with 2006 and their current energy generation is over target although this is largely due to landfill gas which will soon be exhausted. This weekend the council's £5 million project to put pv panels on properties in the town will begin.
The total emissions in Reading were just under 1 million tonnes in 2005 and had been reduced to just over 800,000 by 2009, a reduction of 22% which is the best for any unitary borough in the south east.

There followed workshops to build a vision and gather action ideas for the new strategy. The large number of flip chart sheets and post-it notes generated now have to be worked through!

Taking Decarbonisation Seriously
By international standards the UK is doing well and it is important to recognise that small entities, be that the UK or Reading, are significant as exemplars. However, it is deeply worrying that it is thought possible that with concerted international action we could keep warming below 2C which is estimated to give a 75% chance of avoiding the risk of 'dangerous climate change' - not very good odds. The UK is currently spending above its fair share of the affordable world carbon budget, especially when emissions elsewhere on our behalf are considered. The CAT emphasise that 'physics trumps politics' ('the Cnut principle'). We must start with physics and adjust the politics and economics to fit. Given the UK's history of emissions they need to be not just zero carbon but negative carbon to clear a fair space in the budget for developing countries. CAT have drawn up a scheme to achieve this involving alternative technologies but the necessary negative carbon cannot be achieved without lifestyle changes too eg although most people would still travel in cars there would be lower individual ownership. More drastically air miles would need to be cut by 60% - to the level of the 1970s. The large amount of biomass required would change the appearance of the countryside and require a reduction in grazing livestock with knock on effects for diet. The net result would be a shift in the livestock/crop protein ratio from 55:45 to 33:67. It would also mean a better and more secure diet (with fewer imports) and more people in land-based jobs.

Insisting on maintaing the status quo will eventually destroy it. Applying the necessary adjustments will keep as much as possible of the status quo.

The consequences of their scheme:
Greater energy security as more is produced in the UK
Deal with Peak Oil/Gas
Decarbonising the economy sorts out most other environmental problems as well
High employment
A positive balance of payments
Greater food security (but fewer cows)
Improved diet
Better prospects for our children
This is our chance to make the inevitable transition from seeking 'more' to seeking 'better'. Like our children, there comes a time when the economy has to stop growing bigger and get nicer!

Oxford Diocesan Environment Group

Yesterday I attended the last meeting of ODEG which is now becoming the Earthing Faith Network. Matt Freer reported that the new Earthing Faith website is now up and running and has been much visited. The diocesan website has also been revamped. While the latter carries all the official documentation the Earthing Faith website also has a blog and other resources, including information for churches on installing wood fuel and biomass boilers, pv panels and heat pumps.

Matt reported that Oxford has been chosen, along with Newcastle, as a pilot diocese for using s-measure software to help churches to measure their energy use/carbon emissions and thereby reduce them. Hopefully at least 100 churches will get involved since for this year of the pilot project the software is free for us to use. The scheme is linked to local weather stations so can take account of colder weather in its reporting. It is also open to church schools.

In plans for forthcoming Earthing Faith meeting we discussed community growing schemes, local food etc, as possible themes, hence the chicken picture.

The Government has just announced a comprehensive review of the Feed-in tariffs (FITs) scheme, which makes proposals that would affect any Solar PV installations from early December. The headline change is that a new tariff would be introduced for schemes up to 4kW in size of 21.0p/kWh – down from the current 43.3p/kWh. This will have a major effect on the Solar Schools scheme and the projects supported by Reading Climate Change Partnership which aimed to use the revenue from the Feed in Tariff to help tackle fuel poverty, climate change mitigation and adaptation. A lot of time and money has been committed to these projects on the understanding that the FiT would remain constant until next April.

The Church of England has launched a petition asking the government to continue the previous rate for churches and other not for profit organisations.

To sign the petition visit: https://submissions.epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/20928
(You may need to cut and paste rather than click the link if it asks you to 'sign in')

 

For further details of how this will affect solar church projects visit: http://www.oxford.anglican.org/environment/news/feed-in-tariffs-review-2-nov-2011.html

What Caused the Extreme Weather of 2010-2011? Are we to blame?

Public lecture by Dr Nicholas KlingamanWednesday 9 November 2011
8 pm Palmer Building, Whiteknights, University of Reading

Free entry, all welcome

0118 3784313
publiclectureseries@reading.ac.uk

Owen Jewiss

Last Friday was Owen's funeral at St Barnabas, Emmer Green. The vicar's address can be read here.

One of his colleagues described the importance of  Owen's work on grasslands and the contribution his team made to the knowledge which currently shapes the way this crucial resource is used for meat and milk production.

I was pleased to learn that a few weeks back the Bishop of Oxford had presented the Order of St Frideswide to Owen, a rare honour recognising his outstanding Christian life.

The photos here are from St Barnabas's beautiful meditation and prayer garden completed earlier this year.