From creating local jobs to helping communities access nature, projects across the South West highlighted how community climate action and transition to clean energy can improve everyday lives at an event hosted in Bristol on Monday 6 July.
The Energising Britain South West event, held at M Shed, was one of five simultaneous country-wide events run by local Net Zero Hubs and brought together policymakers, regional leaders and community organisers to discuss what it will take to reach net zero across the region.
As fans whirred in the room ahead of more high temperatures, heatwaves quickly became part of the conversation.
Opening the event, Sonia Krylova, deputy director at the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, said: “We’ve just had the hottest June on record,” Krylova said. “But there are still people who don’t believe in climate change.”
She said the ultimate goal was simple: “Get off fossil fuels and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.”
But she also acknowledged that this must be delivered fairly. With similar events taking place across the country, she underlined the important role local organisations have in bringing people with them.
“You are the trusted voices people want to hear from,” she told attendees.
Energy security minister Ed Miliband also sent a video message to the event, in which he said the transition must support energy security, jobs, growth and access to nature.
Acknowledging how overwhelming the challenge can feel, he added: “The best answer to despair is action.”
That focus on practical action, and on making the transition relevant to people’s lives, ran through the day’s discussions.
Emma Howard-Boyd, chair of the National Heat Risk Commission, warned that extreme heat is an increasing threat to UK infrastructure, pointing to train tracks buckling in 30-degree heat as one example.
Kerry McCarthy MP said the risks of a changing climate are still too often understood too narrowly.
“We tend to think of climate adaptation solely in terms of flooding,” she said.
The “It Makes Life Better” panel brought together community leaders to discuss how the transition can improve lives and help tackle inequality.
Amy Harrison, head of community partnerships at Bristol Climate and Nature Partnership, explained how the Community Climate and Nature Action project is supporting communities to lead their own responses to the climate crisis while addressing systemic inequality.
The project currently backs 17 community climate and nature action plans across Bristol. Harrison said climate change is already embedded in people’s lives, whether they recognise it in those terms or not.
Her advice was: “Don’t start the conversation with climate. Start on a personal or human level and make it relatable.”
That was echoed by Kirsty Tait of Heart of BS13, who described the organisation’s work in Hartcliffe and Withywood, an area of Bristol where studies show residents have a notably shorter life expectancy than other parts of the country.
“We started with people,” Tait said.
She said the question is not only who is absent from climate conversations, but what is being done to make sure they are included.
“It’s not just about who is missing,” she said. “It’s about asking what is being done to include them.”
After speaking with local children, Tait and her team identified waste as a key issue the community wanted to address. Since then they have developed a micro-composting enterprise, the compost is added to the soil at the Heart of BS13 Flower Farm a social enterprise that has created local jobs.
Another Bristol project highlighted during the event was Lockleaze Neighbourhood Trust, where Melissa Blackburn said “communities can be the engine for social change”.
The trust has helped create Really Wild Lockleaze, an urban nature recovery project where 1,400 trees have been planted and local people are replanting housing greens.
The role of clean power in the creative industries was also discussed by Bottle Yard Studios in Bristol, described at the event as the most sustainable production studio in the world.
Representatives of the Creative Clean Power Pilot team explained how clean energy can be made more accessible for the entertainment industry.
“We are very proud of being a sustainable studio,” said Katherine Nash, head of the studio. “We are going to change the culture of clean power in these spaces.”
Chris Bennett Stakeholder and Engagement Lead, South West Net Zero Hub said: “The South West Net Zero Hub and the West of England Mayoral Combined Authority are proud to have hosted Energising Britain South West alongside the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero.
The event showcased some of the amazing climate action and nature recovery work that is happening in communities across the South West, as well as exploring how we can communicate the benefits of climate action – and encourage more communities to get involved.”
Across the day, speakers returned to the idea that the transition to clean power will only succeed if it is rooted in local experience and shaped by the people it is intended to benefit.
From community composting and urban nature to heat resilience and clean power for film production, the South West event showed how action on climate can also mean action on jobs, health, inequality and stronger local communities.