Environment & Sustainability

A short film provides a glimpse into how people one station down the line from PG are reducing waste and living life with less plastic (or in the case of one couple, no plastic). Read the full article

Environmental groups based in north London and more widely are continuing their campaign against the planned new Edmonton Incinerator or 'Energy-from-Waste' project. Recent letters sent to Enfield Council and to a Spanish firm bidding for the construction project have challenged the council to provide evidence that it is subjecting the project to adequate scrutiny and have asked the engineering firm to withdraw its bid in order to protect its reputation as a company committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and promoting the circular economy.

This news clip from 7th August is one of the clearest expositions yet of how rapidly human-caused climate change is progressing, transforming planet Earth from somewhere where the a large percentage of the human population can live very or fairly comfortably into a hostile environment. Climate scientists have been issuing dire warnings for decades, but even they are shocked at recent weather events, such as those shown here.

Enfield Council has been a pioneer in the creation of 'constructed wetlands', so it's no surprise to find that the main author of a newly published Urban Wetland Design Guide is Ian Russell, the council's Principal Engineer, Structures and Watercourses. Although intended for professionals, in particular landscape designers, it's short, very clearly written and illustrated and no specialist knowledge is needed to follow the main design principles.

The chairman of the North London Waste Authority stifled any debate over the Edmonton incinerator rebuild at its annual general meeting, despite one councillor saying the plans 'disturbed him hugely'. Read how Cllr Clyde Loakes refused to discuss this tremendously expensive and environmentally ruinous project.

Asthma UK and the British Lung Foundation are calling for the ultra-low emissions zone (ULEZ) to be extended to cover the whole of London in order to improve the health of sufferers from asthma and other lung diseases. They say Sadiq Khan's planned extension of the zone to the area within the North and South Circular Roads would leave 360,000 asthma sufferers exposed to harmful air. The Green candidate for mayor agrees with the charities, but the Conservative candidate has said he would cancel even the currently planned extension

Local environmentalist Georgia Elliott-Smith is in court this Wednesday and Thursday - the High Court, no less - arguing that the government's new carbon trading scheme is in contravention of the Climate Change Act. It will be possible to watch the proceedings online. Georgia' crowdfunding page, raising money for legal costs, is still open for pledges.

The February meeting of Enfield Climate Action Forum (EnCAF) focussed on the links between injustice in the global trade system and continuing failure to reduce global emissions of greenhouse gases. There were presentations from four people involved in the launch of a bid to make Enfield an official Fairtrade Community.

Environmental campaigners have issued a challenge to the seven borough councils that are funding the North London Heat and Power Project - the construction of a new and larger incinerator to replace the existing facility in Edmonton: 'The question before north London's councils is: Will the decision to reverse course be taken now, responsibly, before costs skyrocket, opportunities for a green recovery are lost, and the equivalent of 250,000 diesel cars are added to our roads? Or will the decision be pushed off to the near future? That's the real call being made.'

The annual Fairtrade Fortnight runs from 22nd February to 7th March. This year there are three special events in Enfield (on Zoom, of course) which investigate how unfair trade terms are hampering international efforts to tackle global climate change.