Herefordshire Green Network

Herefordshire Green Network members are reminded that our AGM takes place on Wednesday 4 December at 5.30pm at Left Bank Village, Hereford.

The formal business (which should take no more than about 10 minutes) will be followed by a people’s assembly to discuss the question:

• What do members need and want from HGN over the next three years?

We very much hope that as many members as possible will will join us to practice democracy in action, and help shape the network’s priorities for the immediate future.

Afterwards, we will repair to the bar for festive drinks and green cheer!

We’re not suggesting that you light up your barbecue… although you might be tempted at times!

Here are some suggestions that local XR activists have put together for possible questions about climate change, to be used at elections hustings. Together, let’s make this the climate election.

• Do you accept that to tackle flooding in Herefordshire we have to commit expenditure from central government now because we are in an emergency situation?

• If you are elected will you commit to supporting the XR Three Demands Bill in the next parliament?

• What will you do about the large British oil & gas companies that have to change the fundamentals of their business for the UK to get to zero carbon?

• Should Boris Johnson take part in the TV debate on the climate emergency with the other Parties?

• How would you go about reducing the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere?

• Will you commit to ensuring we can plant a million trees in Herefordshire?

• Given that Parliament and Herefordshire Council have now declared a Climate Emergency, what steps do you plan to take to make all the new housing going up all over the county carbon neutral?

• A warming planet will lead to increasing instances of flooding in Herefordshire, leading in turn to crop failures, further soil erosion and human displacement.  What measures will your party take to mitigate these?

• What are you personally doing on the issue of Climate Change, outside of your political work?

• House and major roads development are leading to more and more habitat loss, thereby depleting our wildlife.  What measures do you plan to take to reverse these declines?

• With the Climate emergency becoming ever more real and immediate, legally binding and immediate legislation is needed to protect our environment.  What do you propose?

• How would your party support the hundreds of local councils who have declared a climate emergency (including Herefordshire) to meet their ambition of achieving carbon neutrality by 2030?

• What will your party do to ensure people living in rural areas who can’t afford an electric car will be able to travel once diesel and petrol cars are banned?

• Parliament has declared a climate emergency, but government has not. Will your party work to have the next government declare a climate and ecological emergency by the end of 2020, having consulted with the people through a Citizens Assembly?

• Parliament is organizing a Citizens’ Assembly on climate change, but this is advisory and not binding on government. Will your party change the Assembly’s terms of reference so that its recommendations are binding?

• To get to zero carbon, very significant changes will be needed to the economy and to society. For example, some traditional industries will become redundant putting people out of a job, and the UK will have to become much more self reliant in food production.  What plans does your party have to deal with such issues?

• Much of the migration from the Global South into Europe is a result of climate change. How will your party help other countries deal with the effects of climate change so that fewer people feel the need to seek refuge from rising temperatures and food shortages and are driven to migrate to the UK?

• How much money will your party commit to spend on dealing with climate chaos between now and 2030?

• Will your party work with other parties in a government of national unity to address the climate emergency?

• What will your party do to cap and reduce the emissions from aviation?

• How will your party transform road transport, including road building and maintenance, so that it is zero carbon?

• The NFU has an ambition for UK agriculture to make a net-zero contribution to climate change by 2040. What policies will your party put into effect to ensure this happens, and what can be done to bring forward that date? How will such policies also reverse biodiversity loss?

• Parties have made pledges to have full-fibre broadband available to every UK home and business by 2025 and 2030, i.e. 20 to 25 years earlier than the UK currently intends to reach carbon neutrality.  The climate emergency represents an existential threat and requires government to urgently mobilise to make the UK carbon neutral before the end of the next decade. Will your party commit to this?

• Action to slow climate change by reducing emissions is essential, but will not prevent the UK being increasingly affected by the consequences of global warming, such as flooding, heat waves and poor air quality. How will your party prepare society for this changing world?

• To limit the damage from global warming, the UK cannot act alone. It is in our self-interest to ensure other countries follow a path to achieve zero carbon in the next decade. What would your party do in government to get the international community to take faster more effective action?

• When would your party mandate all new homes in the UK are zero carbon?

On Wednesday 27 November, Left Bank Village is holding a hustings evening. All four candidates for the Hereford and South Herefordshire constituency will take part: Anna Coda (Labour), Lucy Hurds (Lib Dem), Jesse Norman (Conservative) and Diana Toynbee (Green Party).

It will be a Radio 4 Any Questions? format; former Bishop of Hereford, Anthony Priddis has agreed to be the chair.

This is a great opportunity to listen to the December 12 standing candidates respond to what will undoubtedly be a wide range of questions – and for you to submit a question*! Audience questions to info@herefordleftbank.com.

Doors  open at 7pm for 8pm start. Organised by Left Bank, Nat Waring, Alan Adams.

* Some possible questions, put together by local Extinction Rebellion activists, follow in a separate post.

Please note: Herefordshire Housing evening postponed.

A reminder that Transition Leominster’s  Zero Carbon Leominster working groups are meeting on Wednesday 27th November, 7pm at Leominster Community Centre.

We have been holding meetings all summer and now our project groups are taking shape. Come and join us and be part of our zero carbon Leominster story.

Join us for another day of free activities and delicious food at the Life and Soul Kitchen.

Christmas is around the corner but how do we enjoy it without damaging the planet and our wallet?

Come on down to make home-made wreaths from foraged materials or why not give a loved one the gift of a treasured possession restored to its former glory? Ginn is here to teach you how to give your clothes a new lease of life through sewing, darning and embroidery.

10am – 3pm, Saturday 16th of November

The Life and Soul Kitchen, Unit 1 Three Elms Trading Estate, HR4 9PU Hereford