We got a bit wet during the march last saturday in Glasgow...

But... we`re

Back Home in the dry now!

Fatima and I left Glasgow this morning to drive, with our caravan, back home to Nottinghamshire. Nice dry day for packing up and driving for six hours! Listening to the radio 4 news at lunchtime and then watching the TV news when back home, the draft agreeement for COP26 really looks a pretty tame affair. Lots of nice words hoping for this and urging that and calling for the other, but precious little in the way of hard ACTION.

All Lib Dem County Cllrs have written a joint letter to the Prime Minister calling on him to support local councils in their attempts to move towards net zero carbon emissions.

In their letter sent on Friday, they write "The UK's net zero target can only be achieved if Government and local authorities work seamlessly together. However we note that the National Audit Office commented in July that there are serious weaknesses in central government's working with local authorities on decarbonisation, stemming from a lack of clarity of local authorities' overall roles, piecemeal funding and diffuse accountabilities."

Steve Mason - Day Three

'Day Three #COP26Glasgow

Demo by Friends of the Earth, a hob nob with the Times and a quick chat with Dale Vince of Ecotricity.

The take away moment from today?

Arctic base camp.

"13,000,000 litres of water melts every second in Greenland alone..."

Just think on that...

If we lose this battle, then we can kiss goodbye to the UK Climate, it will not be as is now.

Day One - 1^st November 2021

Just a short entry from me (Keith) this morning, before I spend the rest of today making sure the caravan is ready to go early tomorrow and is fully packed.

My first COP26 thought this morning was prompted by a news item last night showing our PM - Boris Johnson - speaking at the G20 meeting in Rome. He was making it clear that we could not doubt that we were in a Climate Change crisis and we could not "...procrastinate any longer...!" What puzzled me, and has puzzled me for a long time to be honest, is that Governments around the world know the facts and yet allow themselves to be `lobbied` out of making the right decisions for the security of the planet.

On Wednesday, Rishi Sunak's long awaited - and frequently leaked - 2021 budget was revealed in the House of Commons. Let's go over three of the key headlines.

Tax Cuts for Domestic Flights

According to a study commissioned by Greenpeace and published on Wednesday, over one third (34%) of the busiest short-haul flights in Europe have viable, less polluting train alternatives. Researchers found that European nations could replace almost all the top 250 short-haul flights and save 23.4 million tons of CO2 per year, equal to the annual CO2 output of Croatia. Aircraft on routes shorter than 700km emit 250grams of CO2 per person per km. In comparison, long haul flights and and even diesel cars look squeaky clean, at 195 and 171g/km respectively. Electrified rail, however? 35g/km. Eurostar? 6g/km. Aviation has been the fastest growing source of greenhouse gas emissions in Europe in the last three decades, whilst our trusty locomotive is only gaining in efficiency.

Prologue - 31^st October 2021

Hello. I am writing this on Sunday 31^st October, watching the opening ceremony. I am calling today`s entry into our Diary the Prologue, so that Day 1 will be on the 1^st November, otherwise it could become really confusing!

So, after much fanfare, the 26^th Conference of the Parties - COP26 - is starting. The United Nations Climate Change Conference. Welcoming delegates from many countries travelling huge distances to be here, to bring about change which must be transformative. Setting limits established at the Paris meeting of 2015, the Spanish President of the previous conference making claims of what has already been done… it all sounds very positive.

COP26 - Less Than a Week Away

Excitement - Or Concern (And Trepidation!)

As we get closer to COP26, I feel both a sense of excitement that this major global conference is about to happen, in our backyard, as it were … and a real sense of concern and disappointment that we are going to be let down again by an incompetent and bungling Government. Not to mention trepidation at the threat of strike action by rail and bus employees!

This afternoon, Cumbrian MP Tim Farron has written to the President of the COP26 climate conference, Alok Sharma, urging him to block plans for a new coal mine in Cumbria.

According to a report in the Times at the weekend, Mr Sharma was said to be "apoplectic" with cabinet colleague Robert Jenrick, the Communities Secretary, after he gave the green light to the coal mine earlier this month.