Low Carbon Conferences

Date of Events Mentioned: Saturday 28^th November

Towards a Low Carbon Kirklees – Climate Change Conference

Badge for the event

Held in Quayside at our University, “Towards a Low Carbon Kirklees: local responses to climate change” organised by Kirklees Environment Partnership and Students For Sustainability prepared at 10am for registration and coffee before starting at 10.30am. Once formal announcements had commenced the chair, Victoria Minton, introduced the conference and its core objectives before passing to Steve Smith (KEP) whom began a short thinking exercise. After this got all our brains thinking, Cllr David Sheard listed three crucial points to consider within the discussions, these were reducing consumption, re-use and re-cycling.

First and foremost we need to consider how to reduce our consumption before we do anything in regards to recycling, we need to tackle the problem at its root first and this is caused through the over-production and consumption. Secondly we need to consider how these items can be re-used, for instance a plastic container, it could be used as a lunchbox or storage for bits and ends and clothes, these can be donated and sold on, even if they aren’t of good wear they can be sold on as rags. Last but not least is recycling, anything we cannot avoid or re-use should be recycled where possible.

Afterwards Elizabeth Cox, the keynote speaker, began her talk on looking at economy and how creating a fairer economic system would in turn enable more people around the UK to become environmentally aware.  This talk had many points in which I myself had not considered in regards to enabling others to become more eco-friendly. Points brought to attention, such as economics, equality and fairness all resonated with those brought up by later speakers and I feel this has helped all in attendance understand the issue further on different levels.

Those in attendance both speakers and delegates, were from backgrounds such as education, the council, economics and the general public such as parents and students. This gave for a wide and diverse gathering of collaborative thinking and idea generation, which was later put to use in the form of workshops. We were given seven categories of which we had the choice of our personal interest, these categories included: transport, housing, food and low carbon of the university. I had chose to join the group focused on looking at ways to lower the university’s carbon emissions; As being a student myself I felt this to be most applicable as I would be able to portray the issues we as students face, in terms of participating in recycling and general day to day contributes of carbon emissions. I found the workshop element of the conference to be greatly encouraging as I felt as a student my opinion was appreciated and taken into account fairly, while also helping to shape the way in which the university proceeds with its aims to reduce carbon emissions and promote a sustainable way of living.

Towards the end each group collected back in Quayside before presenting their ideas and proposed solutions to the problems faced in Kirklees regarding climate change. By the end of this there were many ambitious and viable solution ideas and hopefully some of these will get taken forward over the coming year or so. Sir John Harman gave a recap over the key points made over the day and gave spoke about how not just the short-term but more importantly the long-term plans will help to ensure our future is successful in carrying these sustainability plans forward. Lastly, as to continue the involvement of everyone, all attendees were invited to write their e-mails’ upon the idea sheets that they would consider getting involved in.

Individual ideas collected together

TLDR (Too Long Didn’t Read)

Held in Quayside at The University of Huddersfield this conference was aimed at combating climate change at the local level. The speakers and attendees were diverse in their knowledge and sectors, ranging from members of the council to economics experts to students and due to this the workshops were successful in terms of idea generation, inclusion of all and coming up with possible solutions. The event was also useful in terms of networking and general knowledge around global warming and how it can be combated as well as what fuels the problems in solving it.

Student Vigil for Climate Change

Venue:

Quayside

The student vigil organised by Students For Sustainability with Huddersfield Friends of the Earth was short but sweet. Initially we heard an introduction and short talk demonstrating how climate change is a subject to be greatly concerned about, though in order to not dwell too much on the doom and gloom they actively chose to present some more positive information also as to inspire.

In regards to the less desirable but very important information, Kelechi Okegbe, a student at the University of Huddersfield went volunteering at his native country Nigeria as to document and present the horrific results that oil leaks have inevitably resulted in. The point of showing this was to bring awareness to the environmental damage which isn’t necessarily being broadcast about, though through the power of online petitions and independent news reports the effects are slowly being brought into account. To follow on from this they had a musician play acoustic guitar, to which he played a few of his own songs including “two cats” based around world crisis, as well as a mixed cover of “hit the road jack”. This interlude helped break up the dryer content against the more uplifting stories.

One set of speakers whom were of a considerably young age named Murray and Joseph gave a short speech about their view on climate change and how we need to put a stop to it now. Although only young these two lads showed commendable courage getting up and speaking to the group, while also showing through their confidence the passion they felt about the topic. As a fun engaging little filler, there was invitation to sing along to the short song “Sing for the climate” therefore uniting our viewpoint.

Elizabeth Cox spoke about how the economic system requires change to enable further change within the everyday lives. Although this may seem dreary Cox spoke about how gradually there is more and more people and organisations challenging the current set-up for economics and through this development of outcry, people are coming up with alternatives which are being put to those in charge.

Next up was Emma Simpson whom spoke about fossil fuels in regards to being a major factor on climate change. Simpson goes on to talk about many other issues that come with the environmental topic such as inequality, which we see in a range of forms such as: sex, race, wealth and how by bringing this up it helps to connect and engage everyone in the growing battle against global warming. She spoke about questions, questions about why she believes in fighting global warming, asked us to think about the question and then brought to the talk the character “Katniss” from “The Hunger Games” as example.  This example is someone who didn’t want to be a “hero”, didn’t want to fight or become something bigger, but with the forced situation is compelled to take that route. It is through bringing to attention how climate change can affect anyone and everyone that such as this (though in a different way) can happen to you too, but the point of this was to bring about how it is important to be that change before its too late, though saying that the effects are already being felt. It is now a case of helping to slow down the effects and help revert the damage through sustainable development and encouraging a more aware society.

TLDR (Too Long Didn’t Read)

To summarise, I found that this considerably shorter event in comparison to the “Towards a Low Carbon Kirklees” conference to be just as fruitful, in regards to informing people on the great impact global warming has and our role in combating its effects. The Vigil was also suitable for families to attend, as demonstrated by the inclusion of said young speakers present and in terms of length and content. Overall this was a fun but informative event.

How Does It Relate To My Contextual Portfolio?

These events relate to my practise through how it influences my opinion around such topics and the ideas, which get spoken about throughout the event. It helps to open up my mind in regards to, in this instance, climate change, through what is affected and/or affects the topic. One example of this can be shown through the talk by Emma Simpson, upon which she discussed how sexuality and race are factors that sometimes go unnoticed when talking about climate change. This information can help me to be open in my creative thinking and how I understand the audience or users’ a service and visual outcome is of importance to.