Coventry Councillor Jim O’Boyle, who is responsible among other things for Climate Change, has repeatedly claimed that Coventry has already declared a climate emergency.

Philip concludes that Coventry has never declared a climate emergency and he then examines the following questions:

Tom Maidment is a sustainability engineer with experience leading decarbonisation projects in agriculture and industry. He is also Technical Director of E.Mission (emission.org.uk), a consultancy he founded committed to improve public understanding of the carbon footprint of food.

He is an active environmental activist in Coventry. He produced an analysis of the implications for Coventry of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report on 1.5°C of warming which was published on CovCAN website in 2019 at https://covcan.uk/warming-implications-for-coventry/

This is part 2 of a two-part series of interviews with Tom.

In this part he talks about Coventry City Council’s successes and failures in fighting climate change, and makes several constructive and imaginative suggestions about what more they could be doing.

Tom Maidment is a sustainability engineer with experience leading decarbonisation projects in agriculture and industry. He is also Technical Director of E.Mission (emission.org.uk), a consultancy he founded committed to improve public understanding of the carbon footprint of food.

He is an active environmental activist in Coventry. He produced an analysis of the implications for Coventry of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report on 1.5°C of warming which was published on CovCAN website in 2019 at https://covcan.uk/warming-implications-for-coventry/

This is part 1 of a two-part series of interviews with Tom.

In this part he talks about his career to date, the origins of E.Mission, the carbon footprint of food, low carbon recipes (emission.org.uk/recipes) and the possibility of publishing a low-carbon recipe book, the Consultancy work of E.Mission (emission.org.uk/our-services) and their work for the hospitality industry (emission.org.uk/for-hospitality), the fact that food systems are responsible for a third of global anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions (www.nature.com/articles/s43016-021-00225-9), carbon capture and storage, direct air capture and capturing industrial carbon emissions, biological sequestration, geological and lithographic storage, why carbon dioxide is so hard to capture and store, the increase in the amount of atmospheric CO2 in the past 25 years, “godfathering” industrial plants, deforestation, reforestation and afforestation and finally the work of Tim Searchinger of Princeton University.

E.Mission develops a range of services to inform individuals and businesses how they can reduce their carbon footprint. They aim to promote sustainable eating and food practices to help diners eat local and help businesses to meet the growing trend for low carbon eating.  Their site http://emission.org.uk/ is packed with food miles facts, as well as a food carbon footprint calculator helping users to see exactly what food miles mean. Excessive human emissions of greenhouse gases are causing the climate to warm. This manifests in worsening storms, more frequent floods and unprecedented heatwaves that cause hardship around the world.

E.Mission’s data comes from a comprehensive study of over 15,000 participants’ real eating habits and has been used in many academic papers. Their methodologies encompass all facets of food production and preparation. We consider emissions from agriculture, transport, retail, packaging, cooking and waste. Their evidence shows that what you eat can account for 10-50% of your total carbon footprint. But this can be reduced by up to 60% without having any negative impact on health.

They offer free Low-carbon recipes to help individuals and businesses achieve this.

See also https://www.facebook.com/e.missionapp/ 

Shravani Sharma is an Urban and Transport Planner currently pursuing her PhD in Transport and Human Factors at Warwick Manufacturing Group, University of Warwick under the Engineering Physical Science and Research Council, UKRI Award. She is particularly interested in travel choices and wellbeing, travel behaviour, transport and social exclusion, intelligent mobility, active and sustainable mobility and policymaking. Her focus has mostly been on analysing travel behaviour and is currently working on identifying the relationship between transport and wellbeing.

In this podcast she talks about bicycle mayors, councillors and ambassadors, tactical urbanism and working methods, cycle lanes, walking mayors and councillors, changing the culture of travel, her work on COP26 and RouteZero, public engagement by local government, her future work plans and ideas for the future of CovCAN.

Music by Advent Chamber Orchestra

For Part 1 of this podcast see here

Shravani’s latest role centred on building momentum towards an accelerated transition to zero-emission vehicles ahead of COP26 international climate talks in Glasgow. Her efforts were focused on advocacy and engagement in India and internationally, to highlight the urgency of the challenge and emerging opportunities in electric mobility. Her professional involvement includes working with research organisations, government bodies and consultancies such as The Climate Group, ARUP Glasgow, IRADe India, WRI India, DULT India, TNCP India among others. She was also the bicycle councillor of her hometown Guwahati, an honorary position appointed by BYCS Netherlands that aims to promote active mobility in cities.

Shravani did her undergraduate study in Planning and Public Policy at CEPT University, India and her MSc in Urban Transport and big data from University of Glasgow, UK. She gained exposure to novel sources of big data available from the Urban Big Data Centre (UBDC, an ESRC data investment). These experiences positioned her well to work on hands-on analysis required by many transport planning projects. Shravani is also a public speaker and has presented her work in international scientific committee reviewed conferences such as WCTRS, CODATU, UMI etc. She has published many blog posts and articles on matters of urban transportation.

Shravani Sharma is an Urban and Transport Planner currently pursuing her PhD in Transport and Human Factors at Warwick Manufacturing Group, University of Warwick under the Engineering Physical Science and Research Council, UKRI Award. She is particularly interested in travel choices and wellbeing, travel behaviour, transport and social exclusion, intelligent mobility, active and sustainable mobility and policymaking. Her focus has mostly been on analysing travel behaviour and is currently working on identifying the relationship between transport and wellbeing.

In this podcast she talks about the impact of climate change on transport planning, being a bicycle councillor, transport behaviour change, transport policies and lack of communication between policy makers and users, travel priorities in developing countries and issues with multiple car ownership.

Music by Advent Chamber Orchestra

For Part 2 of this podcast see here

Shravani’s latest role centred on building momentum towards an accelerated transition to zero-emission vehicles ahead of COP26 international climate talks in Glasgow. Her efforts were focused on advocacy and engagement in India and internationally, to highlight the urgency of the challenge and emerging opportunities in electric mobility. Her professional involvement includes working with research organisations, government bodies and consultancies such as The Climate Group, ARUP Glasgow, IRADe India, WRI India, DULT India, TNCP India among others. She was also the bicycle councillor of her hometown Guwahati, an honorary position appointed by BYCS Netherlands that aims to promote active mobility in cities.

Shravani did her undergraduate study in Planning and Public Policy at CEPT University, India and her MSc in Urban Transport and big data from University of Glasgow, UK. She gained exposure to novel sources of big data available from the Urban Big Data Centre (UBDC, an ESRC data investment). These experiences positioned her well to work on hands-on analysis required by many transport planning projects. Shravani is also a public speaker and has presented her work in international scientific committee reviewed conferences such as WCTRS, CODATU, UMI etc. She has published many blog posts and articles on matters of urban transportation.

Ann Patterson is the Coordinator of Coventry Green Party https://coventry.greenparty.org.uk/.

In this conversation with Philip Brown she talks about a wide range of green issues including:

Green Party and climate change, green politicians, reform of the electoral system, Coventry Green New Deal, the role of CovCAN, the engaging Coventry City Council in discussions with citizens over climate-related issues, the NHS Net Zero strategy, Eco-churches and EcoSikhs, local food production, how shops sell fresh food, climate assemblies and energy prices.

Music by Advent Chamber Orchestra

Producing food locally has a number of potential benefits, including effects on reducing climate change.

Locally-based food production can reduce the distance food travels as well as enabling more people to grow their own food.

In the short video below the Coordinator of Coventry Green Party, Ann Patterson, talks about the benefits of local food production.

Bath & North East Somerset created a local food strategy in 2014. They point out that local production could also help to tackle rising obesity levels, health inequalities, food poverty, food security and the impact of food production and supply on the natural environment, including its contribution to climate change. There are also economic challenges facing some local food and farming businesses.

The Scottish Government launched  a consultation on producing a local food strategy in 2021.

Needless to say, Coventry city council has no plans to produce such a strategy.

Shravani Sharma is an Urban and Transport Planner currently pursuing her PhD in Transport and Human Factors at Warwick Manufacturing Group, University of Warwick under the Engineering Physical Science and Research Council, UKRI Award. She is particularly interested in travel choices and wellbeing, travel behaviour, transport and social exclusion, intelligent mobility, active and sustainable mobility and policymaking. Her focus has mostly been on analysing travel behaviour and is currently working on identifying the relationship between transport and wellbeing.

In these two podcast she talks about:

Podcast 1:

Podcast 2:

Shravani’s latest role centred on building momentum towards an accelerated transition to zero-emission vehicles ahead of COP26 international climate talks in Glasgow. Her efforts were focused on advocacy and engagement in India and internationally, to highlight the urgency of the challenge and emerging opportunities in electric mobility. Her professional involvement includes working with research organisations, government bodies and consultancies such as The Climate Group, ARUP Glasgow, IRADe India, WRI India, DULT India, TNCP India among others. She was also the bicycle councillor of her hometown Guwahati, an honorary position appointed by BYCS Netherlands that aims to promote active mobility in cities.

Shravani did her undergraduate study in Planning and Public Policy at CEPT University, India and her MSc in Urban Transport and big data from University of Glasgow, UK. She gained exposure to novel sources of big data available from the Urban Big Data Centre (UBDC, an ESRC data investment). These experiences positioned her well to work on hands-on analysis required by many transport planning projects. Shravani is also a public speaker and has presented her work in international scientific committee reviewed conferences such as WCTRS, CODATU, UMI etc. She has published many blog posts and articles on matters of urban transportation.

Shravani Sharma is an Urban and Transport Planner currently pursuing her PhD in Transport and Human Factors at Warwick Manufacturing Group, University of Warwick under the Engineering Physical Science and Research Council, UKRI Award. She is particularly interested in travel choices and wellbeing, travel behaviour, transport and social exclusion, intelligent mobility, active and sustainable mobility and policymaking. Her focus has mostly been on analysing travel behaviour and is currently working on identifying the relationship between transport and wellbeing.

In these two podcast she talks about:

Podcast 1:

Podcast 2:

Shravani’s latest role centred on building momentum towards an accelerated transition to zero-emission vehicles ahead of COP26 international climate talks in Glasgow. Her efforts were focused on advocacy and engagement in India and internationally, to highlight the urgency of the challenge and emerging opportunities in electric mobility. Her professional involvement includes working with research organisations, government bodies and consultancies such as The Climate Group, ARUP Glasgow, IRADe India, WRI India, DULT India, TNCP India among others. She was also the bicycle councillor of her hometown Guwahati, an honorary position appointed by BYCS Netherlands that aims to promote active mobility in cities.

Shravani did her undergraduate study in Planning and Public Policy at CEPT University, India and her MSc in Urban Transport and big data from University of Glasgow, UK. She gained exposure to novel sources of big data available from the Urban Big Data Centre (UBDC, an ESRC data investment). These experiences positioned her well to work on hands-on analysis required by many transport planning projects. Shravani is also a public speaker and has presented her work in international scientific committee reviewed conferences such as WCTRS, CODATU, UMI etc. She has published many blog posts and articles on matters of urban transportation.

This is the question and answer session with workshop facilitators during the Coventry & Warwickshire Climate Change Conference on 11 March 2022.

The seven local authorities in the Coventry and Warwickshire area met to agree how to work together and share information to address the challenges of climate change.

Attendance was by invitation only. Many local climate activists and groups felt excluded, believing that global warming will only be stopped by engaging as many people as possible. Ultimately each one of us is responsible for taking action.

In this series of podcasts, Coventry Climate Action Network publishes extracts taken from a video produced by Warwickshire County Council.