The following are suggestions from the village breakout groups at the HVCA September meeting “Where do we go from here?”
Download Chairman’s message to COP26
Local response
Widen the range of people involved
- Develop ‘pledges’ concept posting cards to every household
- Suggest what people can do themselves
- Parish magazine articles, social media
- Leaflets in holiday cottages
- Encourage people to write to MPs, Councillors and schools
- Arrange a big event in spring 2022. Engage farmers and land managers
Review rewilding and integrate with farming: ‘rewilding’ feels like an attack on farmers
- More environmentally sustainable land management
- Think more about how farming could change
- Understand changing pattern of farm subsidies: how could these work for biodiversity and climate
- Engage with farmers, including young farmers
- Farmers to speak at public meeting
- Connections between domestic gardens and wider land management
Publise what HVCA is doing on travel and transport
- Influence visitors. Congratulate visitors when they arrive by train/bus
- Lots of little electric buses
- Congestion charge for bringing a vehicle into the National Park
- Campaign for safe walking and cycling
Press ahead with home energy saving
- Publicise Open Eco Homes event in October.
- Work with other groups and local authorities to inform and encourage take-up of home energy efficiency measures.
Message to political leaders
Show leadership
- Get real, get on with it
- Be bold and work constructively for change
- Show that you care more about the future of the planet than about economic growth and profit
- Action and commitment to meeting targets
- When governments act [as with Covid] they can bring about real change
- Listen to the science
- Understand the consequences of inaction
- Look for long term solutions
- Clarify the responsibility of each country
- Transparent information about global progress
- Independent global commission to verify each country’s progress
- Reinstate the aid budget to assist poor countries
- UK to lead the way in contributing to the global Climate Fund
- Use UK diplomatic skills
- Provide resources [for example for making homes energy efficient]
- Make it easier for people to move away from gas heating
- Build on what people are already doing
