Holyrood 350 consists of people from across Scotland who are actively working to reduce their communities carbon footprint. We are responding to the message of top climate scientists that CO2 in the atmosphere must be reduced from the current 390ppm to below 350, to avoid a rise of 2 degrees and catastrophic climate change.
As people from climate active communities the length and breadth of Scotland, we fully appreciate the ground breaking Climate Change Act brought in by the Scottish Government and passed by our Parliament. As people fully aware of the lack of progress in international negotiations - at Copenhagen and then at Cancun — we are clear that the Scottish Government’s Climate Challenge Fund is a globally unique, cutting-edge way of inspiring and helping local communities to demonstrate that reducing carbon emissions can increase community cohesion, infrastructure, energy security and well-being.
We see the Scottish Government as being in a unique position to continue taking the lead in the race out of carbon, not only through ensuring that all our energy needs are met through renewables, but by enabling all communities to make the transition to resilience through adopting a clear framework in which communities can flourish. By doing so Scotland can demonstrate to the world how rising to the challenge of climate change can enrich rather than impoverish us.
A sketch of our draft Resilience Strategy for Scotland is here. (Older background documents relating to our proposed policy framework can be found on this home page).
HOLYROOD 350 is currently co-ordinated by: Justin Kenrick PEDAL Portobello, Andy Ross Glasgow CRAG, Mike Small Fife Diet, Lucy Conway Isle of Eigg, Eva Schonveld PEDAL Portobello, Rachel Nunn Going Carbon Neutral Stirling, Nick Wilding Falkland Transition, Jonathan Dawson Findhorn Ecovillage, Jane Grey Let’s Live Local, Abi Morden Urban Roots Glasgow, Alan Drever Sleat, Isle of Skye, Alan Brown Linlithgow Climate Challenge
H350 is one way for people who are getting on with carbon reduction and resilience building in our communities to say loud and clear that: “communities are getting on with making a better world, how do we get government and corporate logic to get out of the way, so that we can really let this work flourish rather than be marginalised and appropriated and dumbed down” … We have spoken very clearly through different media at different times — e.g. through our excellent event in Parliament — but what is the best way for communities to speak and effect change at the national level now?
… let us know your thoughts!
justinkenrick (at) yahoo.co.uk
What hopes for Scotland in 2011?
That 2011 is a breakthrough year for ecology and social justice: that we dare to reclaim politics from corporations, and for community; that we replace the boom and bust cycle of the profiteers, and reclaim the economy for the people. Simple.
All the main parties are caught up in the logic of corporations; all are caught in the mind-set of there being no alternative. There is.
This article explores what, and how … It is on the Bella Caledonia website
Cap and Share video
As climate negotiations in Cancun, Mexico, tried to rescue anything face-saving from the ashes of Copenhagen, and as the planet continues to heat up regardless, a simple idea called Cap & Share — which would simultaneously control emissions and boost equality – has been gaining attention.
Of course, the prospect of cutting out all the financial middle-men does not appeal to everyone, as a covert video recently obtained by freakyleaks demonstrates only too well .… The video is available here.
Cap & Share is a policy for capping (limiting and then reducing) carbon emissions, which was hailed by the UK Sustainable Development Commission as one of its ‘Breakthrough Ideas of the 21st Century’. It is simple, cheap, fair, efficient and effective, and can be applied globally or on a country-by country basis.
Holyrood 350 — Recent Events

Linlithgow ‘350’ Apple Picking on ’10.10.10′
Unplugging and Reconnecting on Sunday 10.10.10
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Communities across Scotland involved in Holyrood 350 took part in an ‘Unplug and Reconnect’ 10.10.10 day (10 October) as part of the Global 350 movement.
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350 is the number that leading scientists say is the safe upper limit for carbon dioxide — measured in “Parts Per Million” in our atmosphere. 350 PPM — it’s the number humanity needs to get back to as soon as possible to avoid runaway climate change. It’s the 7:84 of the 21stC.
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The 350 Movement says: “On 10.10.10, we will celebrate climate solutions and send our politicians a clear message: “We’re getting to work — what about you?” So, working with the numerology we decided to try and motivate 10 people in 10 communities to spend 10 hours unplugging and reconnecting.
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People to come up with their own actions, or inactions: UNPLUGGING from carbon consuming: from screens like this (mobiles, laptops, TVs, DVDs), from cars, from all those activities that appear to connect us with distant others but often cut us off from people in the same house and neighbourhood; and RECONNECTING with members of our household and community, whether through shared meals, sharing a poem, planting and tending edible plants on public land, walking and talking, making sand sculptures on the beach or big chalk drawings on the pavement of how we hope our communities will be in 2020.
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The full details of the (non) plans are on the H350 website here, and information on the 350.org webiste is here, a website inspiringly run by Bill McKibben and colleagues in America!
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So on Sunday many of us Unplugged and Reconnected: it was extraordinary to not be working on a screen like this, but actually having time with family and walking the beach, seeing friends, not working flat out against the climate change deadline. Some of us are wondering whether we should make this ‘downtime’ one Sunday a month? Call us newcomers to being old fashioned, but isn’t this what Sundays used to be for?!
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Parachuting off the Energy Cliff: Securing Holyrood Support for Community Resilience — June 5th 2010
On Saturday June 5th 2010 at the Renfield Centre, Glasgow, we held this ‘internal’ H350 event focusing on the energy cliff, economic livelihoods, and how to enable MSPs to build on the success of the Climate Challenge Fund and Scotland’s excellent climate change targets, in the context of Global failure at Copenhagen, the economic crash (our experience of the energy crisis), and the changing political landscape in Scotland and the UK.
Kicking off with presentations on energy (Andy Ross), livelihoods (Justin Kenrick) and politics (Mike Small) we collectively, realistically and imaginatively sought to arrive at a clear picture of how communities and their politicians can work together to effectively and strategically build on what climate active communities have been working so hard to achieve, and to ensure that the kinds of communities CCF Mark 1 has had less success in reaching can be supported in moving towards resilience. An outline of the structure of the event can be found here. We aim to have a ‘Public’ meeting back in the Scottish Parliament in the Autumn to take this back to the politicians in the build up to the May 2011 election.
Scotland’s Civil Society Summit — 18th February 2010
The Holyrood 350 analysis and proposals were presented by Justin Kenrick — alongside Chris Martensen’s analysis of the looming energy and economic crash — as part of Scotland’s Civil Society Summit on Thursday 18th February in the Edinburgh International Conference Centre.
Foundation for the Economics of Sustainability — 25th February 2010
Our analysis and proposals were also presented by Andy Ross on Thursday 25th February as part of the evening that kicked off the FEASTA (Foundation for the Economics of Sustainability) conference in Forres. Andy also reports that a version of one of the 4 key solutions to climate change proposed by Holyrood 350 has been taken up by senior figures in American politics. It is a version of ‘Cap and Share’ called ‘Cap and Dividend’ (see right hand column for explanation of how this system works to rapidly and fairly wean a carbon-obese society off fossil fuels).
A Range of Responses to Copenhagen here
The Story of Cap and Trade
Although they sound similar, Cap and Trade is entirely different to Cap and Share:
CAP and SHARE (see right hand column) is a system which can be used to CAP (to limit and dramatically reduce the carbon coming into the country in line with the science), and to SHARE (to distribute the revenue raised to ensure people have the money to cope with the increased price in all goods and services which have carbon content).
In contrast, CAP and TRADE (the EU response to climate change, and the approach proposed at Copenhagen) simply enables business as usual (soaring emissions, soaring fuel prices and soaring profits for the heavy emitters) to continue. See this superb 20 minute cartoon explanation of how Cap and Trade works: The Story of Cap and Trade
Reflections on Holyrood 350’s Event in the Scottish Parliament
… on September 2009 can be found here. Reflecting on what a community approach to politics might look like.
… and finally: click here for a comment on the scariness of Kevin Anderson’s ‘Optimistic’ Scenario
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