Environment & Sustainability

Georgia Elliot-Smith, an Enfield resident and leading campaigner against the planned Edmonton incinerator, has instigated related legal proceedings against the UK Government and Devolved Administrations. The case will be led by the same QC who won last year's Heathrow 3rd runway case for Friends of the Earth.

Enfield's cabinet has approved a Climate Action Plan which sets out measures designed to make council activities carbon-neutral by 2030 and the borough as a whole carbon-neutral by 2040.

Overnight on Sunday/Monday this week a thousand posters popped up around London and other parts of the country, encouraging people to ditch the car and walk, scoot or cycle instead when schools resume in September. The posters had been sent out in secret to supporters by the clean air campaign group Mums for Lungs, which was established in 2017 when a group of parents walking around South London with small babies became aware of the toxic levels of air pollution on London's streets.

At last week's board meeting of the North London Waste Authority, the concerns of a remarkably broad coalition of opponents of the plan for a huge new incinerator were brushed aside by the authority's chair. But challenges to the project have not gone away, the latest being an open letter which, using unvarnished language, calls out the authority on one of the most basic items of data being used to justify the project.

Feedback, an environmental organisation campaigning to transform the food system, is recruiting for a series of 15-week-long, 4 days per week, paid internships (£10.75 per hour) for young people (aged 18-24) based at Forty Hall Farm. Plus an additional internship placement in Barnet at GROW in Totteridge Academy

Two campaigning organisations have issued urgent appeals to respond to the Mayor of London's consultation on temporary changes to the Central London Congestion Charge and support the proposals, in order to help prevent the return of heavy traffic with consequent implications for air quality and increased road danger. The appeal has been made by Mum's For Lungs, a group set up to try to protect schoolchildren from toxic traffic fumes, and London Living Streets, which brings together London members of the charity which campaigns to rebalance the interests of road users.

Environmental groups have renewed calls for the North London Waste Authority (NLWA) to review its plans to build a huge new waste incinerator in Edmonton. A letter sent to councillors in seven boroughs contains detailed 'rebuttals' of claims made recently by NLWA board members in defence of the project. Their objections relate both to serious environmental concerns and to the project's value for money, especially in the light of changing circumstances.

North London Organic Gardeners and Incredible Edible Barnet are joining forces to put on the first North London online Gardeners' Question Time Monday 9th April.

Enfield Council's draft climate action plan is much too limited in scope, is taking far too long to be developed and put into action, is neglecting to engage citizens properly, and fails to identify opportunities for the borough's businesses. These are the conclusions of an analysis presented at the April meeting of the Enfield Climate Action Forum (EnCAF).

The Climate Action Plan published by Enfield Council in mid-March outlines measures designed to make the council carbon-neutral by 2030. However, only 11 per cent of borough-wide emissions are due to the council's own operations, the main sources are transport, housing and the industrial and commercial sector, and it is equally important to make these carbon-neutral too. The deadline for comments is looming - in view of the coronavirus crisis taking precedence, it should be extended.