Holyrood 350 — H35O

You are invited to join representatives from Transition Towns, Going Carbon Neutral, and other climate change active communities, to meet with our MSPs for an up-beat lunchtime meeting in the Scottish Parliament on Thursday SEPTEMBER 10th.

(NOTE: This event has been postponed from  June 4th, due to the fact that MSPs have decided to be in their constituencies on June 4th for the Euro Elections - and, in fact, we see this as a better date since this meeting is about how to deliver a zero carbon Scotland, and it is helpful for it not to be confused with the setting of targets which is the main concern of June’s Climate Change Bill).

From 12.30pm to 1.30pm on Thursday SEPTEMBER 10th we are inviting MSPs to drop by on Committee Room 2 to share some lunch and to hear brief and inspiring stories from people from communities right across Scotland who are tackling climate change.

This will be a vote of thanks to the Scottish Parliament for supporting such community action through the Climate Challenge Fund, and communities will be asking Holyrood to take further action so that all communities in Scotland can make the transition to becoming zero carbon.

From 1.30-3.30pm there will be workshops involving community representatives, climate experts, and – we hope – MSPs and civil servants in thrashing out how we - as local communities and as a national community – can lead the world in the race out of carbon.

MSPs will have just returned from the summer recess (presumably after having passed the Climate Change Scotland Bill in June) and having been applauded for setting ambitious targets, they will be asking themselves how they are going to deliver. The issue will be rising up the political and public agenda in the run up to the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference in December, so this will be the perfect opportunity for people who are actively working to reduce their communities carbon footprint to let MSPs know that we are behind them in delivering on the promise of the Climate Change Bill and in strengthening support for local communities who are willing to start tackling climate change now.

If you are actively working to help reduce your communities’ carbon emissions, then you are welcome to join us – numbers are necessarily limited, so please let us know as soon as you can by emailing justinkenrick@yahoo.co.uk.

Best wishes and 1000 thanks,

The Holyrood 350 Initiating Group

What is Holyrood 350?

Holyrood 350 consists of people from across Scotland who are actively working to reduce their communities carbon footprint, and who recognise that CO2 concentrations must be reduced from the current 387 to below 350ppm, to avoid a rise of 2 degrees and catastrophic climate change.

Holyrood 350 is currently organised by:

Mike Small, The Fife Diet – www.fifediet.co.uk  

John Riley, Carbon Neutral Biggar - www.cnbiggar.moonfruit.com

Rachel Nunn, Going Carbon Neutral Stirling - www.goingcarbonneutralstirling.org.uk

Eva Schonveld/ Justin Kenrick, PEDAL Portobello Transition Town www.pedal-porty.org.uk

Nick Wilding, Falkland and Fife Transition Initiatives - www.transitionfife.blogspot.com

Jonathan Dawson, Findhorn Ecovillage - www.ecovillagefindhorn.com

Andy Ross, Glasgow CRAG - www.carbonrationing.org.uk/glasgow

Lucy Conway, Isle of Eigg - www.isleofeigg.org

This meeting is kindly sponsored by:

Shirley-Anne Somerville MSP

The sponsor contact is:

Ria Donaldson (Ria.donaldson@scottish.parliament.uk)

“If there’s no action before 2012, that’s too late. What we do in the next two to three years will determine our future. This is the defining moment.”

Rajendra Pachauri (Chair, IPCC. November 2007)