Leicester Friends of the Earth

 

Press Release – 27.6.09.

 

Friends of the Earth’s new Director meets with Lord Mayor and cabinet lead for the environment, during visit to Leicester (Photos attached)

 

On Friday the 26^th of June Andy Atkin’s, Friends of the Earth’s new Director, visited Leicester to address a meeting of Friends of the Earth members from across the East Midlands.  While in Leicester he also met with the Lord Mayor, Roger Blackmore and with Sarah Russell, cabinet lead for the environment, to hear about the work that Leicester City Council is doing on climate change and other environmental issues.

 

Friends of the Earth have just launched a new campaign, called “Get Serious about CO2”.  This campaign is aimed at getting local councils to adopt policies aimed at reducing CO2 emissions in their areas by 40% by 2020 and on Thursday the 25^th of June a report commissioned by Friends of the Earth was published, showing how local councils might achieve this level of cut. 

The report, produced by an organization called Carbon Descent, recommended that the most cost effective way for Leicester to achieve emission reductions of 40% within in 10 years would be through a combination of combined heat and power schemes, which use waste heat from electricity generation to provide heating and hot water to homes and other buildings; and a programme to help people insulate their homes better.

Malcolm Hunter, from Leicester Friends of the Earth said:

“This is the level of cut that the latest science tells us that rich countries like the UK need to achieve to stop climate change making a billion of the poorest people in the world homeless and to stop the UK facing increased flooding and droughts; rising food prices; and economic instability. The measures that the Carbon Descent report recommends, to stop this happening, would not only substantially reduce CO2 emissions, but also create urgently needed jobs and help to reduce people’s fuel bills”.

He went on to say:

“Roger and Sarah were able to tell Andy about many things that the City Council is already doing, or planning, including the Council’s existing programmes to help people improve the energy efficiency of their homes; plans for future combined heat and power schemes; and plans for wind turbines.   They also told him about the City’s ball mill plant, which is able to recover a lot of valuable material from unsorted waste, unlike an incinerator, which is what the County Council is currently talking of building”.

Sarah Russell, cabinet lead for the environment said:

"It was a great opportunity to meet Andy and discuss how the new Friends of the Earth toolkit for local authorities may be able to help us meet our ambitious One Leicester targets to reduce the city's CO2 emissions”.

ENDS

For further information contact:

Malcolm Hunter, Leicester FoE Media Officer, Tel: 07773 289 316

Notes

1)     A briefing on the methodology of the Carbon Descent study is attached and details of their recommendations for Leicester, including how they were arrived at, can be found below.  Both can also be viewed at: http://www.leicesterfoe.org.uk/archive.html#Climate

2)     More information about Leicester Friends of the Earth can be found at: www.leicesterfoe.org.uk. 

3)   Information on energy efficiency help already available from Leicester City Council can be found at: http://www.leicester.gov.uk/your-council--services/housing/living-in-leicester--and-home-advice/energy-efficiency/home-energy-efficiency

4)    Rather undermining my credentials as a media officer, I forgot to get quotes from Roger, Sarah and Andy.  I therefore asked all of them if they would like to send me one by e-mail.  One from Sarah is now included and I will forward any others that I receive.

How Leicester figures were derived

 

 

number of homes with cavity walls but currently don’t have cavity wall insulation	25720
number of homes currently without good loft insulation	33600
number of combined heat and power schemes	30
number of houses that should be externally insulated;	2260
number of houses that should be internally insulated;	2260
number of solar PV installations that should be fitted to homes;
number of solar hot water installations that should be fitted to homes;
number of wind turbines that should be fitted to homes;
number of houses that should be fitted with double glazing;	17750
number of domestic heat pumps that should be installed;