For more information go to the Pass it on Day web site

RBS is holding its Annual General Meeting in Edinburgh on 28th April 2010.  But we are not invited, despite being the majority shareholder. We want RBS to listen to the public, so we are holding an RBS Public Shareholder Meeting at the Mercure Point Hotel, Bread St, Edinburgh at 6:00pm, on the same day, which anyone can attend.

The event will be chaired by Sunday Herald environment correspondent, Rob Edwards; we’ll have inspirational speakers representing indigenous communities around the world who are suffering the direct effects of RBS’s dirty investments, as well as representatives of the renewables industry that RBS currently underfunds:

Speakers:

• ERIEL TCHEKWIE DERANGER, First Nations tribe member from Canada
• SIMON CHAMBERS, Documentary-maker and campaigner
• RICHARD GAULD, Founder and MD of Orkney Sustainable Energy
• KEVIN SMITH, Climate & Finance Campaigner, PLATFORM

We want you – the public owners of RBS – to submit your own Motions for discussion.  Send us your suggestions for how RBS could become the Royal Bank of Sustainability and how you’d like to see your money invested for good.  We’ll vote on the motions at the meeting and send the winning ones to the UK Government and the Board of RBS. Read motions submitted so far here.

This event is organised by SEAD  Amnesty International Scotland, Friends of the Earth Scotland, People & Planet, Platform and the World Development Movement.

The event is free and open to everyone, but please register below if you want to come along.

If you want to get further involved on the day why not join the ‘public shareholders’ protest outside the RBS AGM (12 noon, Edinburgh International Conference Centre). Wear your smart suit; we are now shareholders after all! Find out more.

“We are seeing a terrifyingly high rate of cancer in Fort Chipewyan where I live. We are convinced that these cancers are linked to the Tar Sands development on our doorstep. It is shortening our lives. That’s why we no longer call it ‘dirty oil’ but ‘bloody oil’. The blood of Fort Chipewyan people is on these companies’ hands.” –  George Poitras, former chief of Mikisew Cree First Nation.

The higher oil prices in recent years have meant that it’s become a more attractive prospect for oil companies to expand their operations in the costly process of obtaining and processing the thick bitumen into a usable form. It’s estimated that the industry is looking for a capital investment of $120-$220 billion over the next 20 years to build the new pipelines, mines, refineries and upgraders that are necessary to sustain the boom.

This report looks at the role that UK banks are playing in providing the necessary capital, and how RBS, which is 84% owned by the UK public, has been the bank the most heavily involved in underwriting loans to companies engaging in tar sands extraction.

The report is written by Platform London in partnership with SEAD, Friends of the Earth Scotland, People & Planet, WDM, Bank Track, New Internationalist, Rainforest Action Network, Friends of the Earth Europe, Greenpeace, PiPLiNKS, Canadian Indigenous Tar Sands Campaign  and  Campagna per la riforma della Banca Mondiale.

Click here to download a copy of the full report. (PDF 2.1Mb)

The report entitled ‘Are we Switching On? Challenges and Opportunities for Climate Change Education’ identifies and profiles projects which empower people to take action to tackle climate change in their own lives and communities, rather than those which simply give information without an action-based focus. It serves as a dynamic overview of some of the key approaches to creating behavioural change through climate education, as well as an inspiring bank of ideas which organisations large or small can use to develop their own work.

• It examines the challenges and opportunities faced by groups in Scotland working to create climate action – and places an emphasis on creating positive solutions, and community-based action which builds resilience on all levels.
• It offers advice on how to avoid preaching to the converted, and to reach out to involve the wider community.
• The report also recommends that communities must have access to support at all levels to help them develop – from funding to mentoring, resources and training.
• It also highlights a need for sharing of experience between projects.

The report, written by community educator Jamie Auldsmith, is published by SEAD as part of our Switch On to Climate Change project, showcases the work of groups and projects including Going Carbon Neutral Stirling, PLANEspeaking, the John Muir Trust, EcoCongregations, the Transition Scotland network, Eco Schools and the Centre for Human Ecology.

Click here to download a copy of the full report. (Pdf 750Kb)

The Stop Climate Chaos Scotland coalition rally was held just two days before the TICC Committee of the Scottish Parliament is due to publish its Stage 1 report on the Bill. It was a carnival atmosphere from the crowd and over 30 MSPs turned out along with other parliamentary staff, reporters and chief executives from Scotland’s leading charities and faith groups.

Representatives from all the political parties made speeches with the strong message that action is urgently needed now!

SEAD, an active member of the coalition,  joined the rally to support them in commending the Scottish Government for showing leadership and committing to at least 80% cuts in greenhouse gases by 2050 in the Bill.

However, if we are to really tackle climate change, we need to act urgently so there are three main things that the Bill needs to address:

• Statutory annual reductions in greenhouse gas emissions of at least 3% year on year starting now
• The inclusion of emissions from international aviation and shipping from the beginning
• Ensure that the action to tackle climate change takes place in Scotland and is not ‘bought in’ from overseas.

You can read more about the coalition and the policy briefings we have put together by visiting our coalition partner’s website stopclimatechaos.org.

Take part in two activities in the lead up to the G20 summit on the global financial crisis being held on the  2nd April in London. Switch off your lights for Earth Hour and take part in the Put People First – Jobs, Justice, Climate march or send a message.

Put People First – jobs, Justice, Climate march, London

On 28th March thousands will march through London as part of a global campaign to challenge the G20, ahead of their 2nd April summit on the global financial crisis.

Even before the banking collapse, the world suffered poverty, inequality and the threat of climate chaos. The world has followed a financial model that has created an economy fuelled by ever-increasing debt, both financial and environmental.

Our future depends on creating an economy based on fair distribution of wealth, decent jobs for all and a low carbon future.

There can be no going back to business as usual.

People from all over the country will join the march on March 28, Be one of them or send your message here.

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EARTH HOUR 2009

It’s now just a few days until  Earth Hour – a global demonstration of concern about climate change when people, businesses and iconic buildings around the world will switch off their lights for one hour at 8.30pm on Saturday 28 March.

WWF want a billion people around the world to sign up and join in – so if you haven’t already, please sign yourselves up at http://www.wwf.org.uk/earthhour/signup/

Sign up and switch off your lights on 28 March at 8.30pm to show world leaders that we need them to act
decisively on climate change.

Farming in Kenya is becoming ever more difficult. Because of climate change the seasons are becoming increasingly unpredictable, and weather conditions are becoming more extreme. More and more farmers are struggling to produce enough food from their land and are ultimately unable to feed themselves and their families.

80% of the population in rural areas of Kenya depend on small-scale agriculture. The increasing occurrence of droughts has meant that many people have been unable to produce sufficient crops to feed themselves and their families, and are often surviving on one meal a day.

In Machakos District, VETAID is training subsistence farmers in agricultural techniques which take into account the changing climatic conditions in the region. Local people are trained in using drought-resistant crops, cereal transplanting (a technique that improves yields in areas of low rainfall), ploughing methods which preserve soil moisture and nutrients, and community draught animal power schemes. These farming techniques also reduce dependency on fertilisers.

The training is done at Farmer Field Schools (FFS), where VETAID demonstrates the results that can be achieved by using these innovations. When local people see that the crops growing at the FFS are larger than those growing on their own land, they approach VETAID to find out how this has been achieved. They receive training in these farming techniques at the FFS, and can then pass on their new skills and knowledge to their families, neighbours and other members of the community.

The Selanga Vulnerable Self-help Group began three years ago and meets every Tuesday at their local Farmer Field School near Machakos town. The group is made up of 13 men and 37 women, including the very old and the very poor. In the past, all of the group members frequently faced almost complete crop failure.

Now, with the new skills and equipment they have through the FFS, they work together to increase the yield of their crops. The older group members offer advice, while the younger members help the older ones to farm their shambas. The group members also pass on the skills they have learnt to their households, further disseminating the knowledge learnt in the FFS.

They have a group bank account where they deposit any earnings from the crops they grow at the FFS. This money can either be reinvested in their agricultural activities or can be used to offer loans to group members so that they can start up small businesses.

Agnes Ndonga is a member of the Selanga Vulnerable Self-Help Group. She has nine adult children as well as two teenage grandchildren that she cares for, since their mother died. With such a large family, feeding them all from the crops grown on the family’s small plot of land is not easy. But with the higher yields she can achieve from the new farming methods, Agnes can now feed her family and can sell any surplus produce to bring in a small income.

You can see Agnes Ndonga in the photo, with the maize crop grown at the FFS that has grown to between knee and waist height. Crops grown near to the FFS, where the new techniques have not been used are only a few inches high. “When we plant in our homes as we learnt here,” she says, “we have a very good harvest.”

More about VETAID: www.vetaid.org

At their first December meeting someone mentioned the phrase “Transition Town” and so, to find out what Transition Towns are all about, they went away and read the Transition Primer over the holidays. The Transition model of creating an energy descent plan, to reduce their communities’ dependence on fossil fuels, appealed to them. So in January they were all fired up to give it a go.

“We started showing movies once a month, first in private and then in the local hotel. We invited SEAD to give two excellent workshops, we also invited several local speakers and three people attended the Transition Training in Dundee in June. One person went to the Transition Conference in Cirencester in April and three people went to the Scottish gathering in July. All this networking has been instrumental in keeping the energy for the project going. All our events have been very well received, except possibly for one event which was all doom and gloom. Until now we’ve had between 10 and 50 people come to our different events and talks and we hold an email list of about 120 people now plus an allotment list of 70 people.”

“Tip: Always aim to have suggestions for solutions to enable people to keep their hopes up. Despair makes people lethargic whereas action is an antidote to despair.”

The Forres Transition Town group has derived a lot of strength from having a clear set of aims, allowing them to achieve a strong group and a clear plan of action in only one year.

“Our aims are to promote a sustainable and resilient local community along the principles of the Transition Town ethos. The Future can be even better than the past if we are in charge of the change that must happen to preserve our planet. Community cohesion and empowerment as well as community engagement is what drives us forward.”

With these clear aims, they’ve been able to take their project forward, get funding but still keep the wider community involved in deciding what happens in their locality.

“In late October we were awarded £184,119 from the Climate Challenge Fund for our community project of starting allotments, a farmers market and awareness raising over a two and a half year period. This is giving us the opportunity to prepare a Development or Business plan which we are doing through community consultations, interviews and several drop-in sessions. We are increasingly working together with other groups in our community and we take every opportunity to promote ourselves at community events. We are forming links with Moray Council and are now planning events together. We have full support from our Community Council, our Area Forum and Forres in Bloom.”

It hasn’t all been success, and as with all groups they have faced challenges, but by building links and drawing on their strengths they have found ways to overcome their setbacks.

“The main problem so far is time. To affect change is time consuming. We’ve been lucky to have several very dedicated people on our steering group and several people with experience of setting up companies before. Forres is a small town with an already good community spirit and a number of useful organisations in place, this has helped enormously. We have had a lot of support from SEAD, from the Climate Challenge Fund, from Transition Support Scotland and from our local newspaper.”

Forres’ top tips for communities starting out:

“Start small, grow organically, be sure to have fun and make sure you see your own skills no matter how small they might appear. Together we can shift mountains. Take advantage of existing official local partnerships, local Area Forums and Community Councils, etc. Build bridges and have fun.”

Those concerned about climate change and the credit crunch turned their backs on shopping this Christmas for a fun alternative, the SEAD Christmas Clothes Swap-O-Rama. Everyone brought a bag of clothes and under appreciated presents. The contributions were laid out, people browsed and hey presto got a new look and Christmas presents for the family! Around 120 people became swappers and learnt how to make beautiful gifts from waste with Waste Innovations while enjoying live music by local musicians.

In 2008 many exciting community action initiatives to tackle climate change started up in Edinburgh. The Swap-O-Rama focused on bringing people together to swap, create, meet, hang out and find out about these local initiative’s and how they can get involved. The day was a real success and swappers ended the day by calling out for the next event!

To some people it might seem like a strange thing for SEAD, a charity that supports communities tackling climate change, to be doing with its Sunday afternoons. But by giving old things a new lease on life, rather than letting them fester at the backs of cupboards or in landfills, we’re tackling the problems of over production and getting to meet new people and build links within our community.
In recent years there’s been a veritable explosion in the number of groups and websites providing resources to help people swap all kinds of skills and stuff, in a rejection of mainstream ‘buy it and bin it’ consumer culture.

One of the most well known examples is Freecycle, which now has over 4000 swapping communities around the world, with 1,487,765 members in the UK, and 44 groups in Scotland. Freecycle members join an online community, made up of people in their local area. Members list their unwanted stuff, and others agree to take it off their hands, without any money changing hands and with no need for a landfill site. Even though there’s little face to face communication, Freecycle helps build community, by showing people that there are lots of untapped resources right there in their locality, without having to turn to multinational businesses to find what you need.

The Freeconomy Community is another, fledgling online swapping resource that is even more clearly dedicated to building communities’ resilience in the face of fast progressing climate change. Rather than simply swapping objects, Freeconomy is all about providing the skills and the means for communities to learn new skills and do things for themselves. Members list the skills they are able to share, and can also draw on the skills of other group members. There are also forums for listing tools and spare home, office and garden space for other people to use. Unlike Freecycle, Freeconomy communities are intended to have a life outside the cyber-dimension. You’re given just three opportunities to email a Freeconomy member, and that’s it: after three emails you’re expected to get off the net and meet them face to face. The Freeconomy philosophy all revolves around the idea that being part of ‘a closely knit community with a diverse group of skills could well be the security of tomorrow.’

Even websites that aren’t primarily about swapping have developed sections for people to swap and trade without the need for cash. For example, Gumtree, the hugely popular network of classified ads, is primarily used by people looking to find housing to rent and flatmates to live with. But their focus on community and the ever increasing demand for communities to share their resources means that they also have sections for listing skills available for sharing skills and a ride-sharing section helping people to save money and carbon emissions.

Since the recession started, there’s been a flurry of interest in swapping clubs and online communities, mainly because of their money saving potential. Given that swapping not shopping can save you money, stop us wasting so many usable material goods and help our communities to regain the skills of self sufficiency, it’s difficult to see why everyone isn’t doing it.

You can find out more about all of these swapping resources at:
http://uk.freecycle.org
http://www.justfortheloveofit.org
http://www.gumtree.com