< Back SSCA's reflections on COP27, 6th-20th November 2022, Egypt Fiona Morgan 1 Dec 2022 From global to local action The Global Picture Delegates at COP27 in Egypt last month reached a historic deal to set up a “loss and damage” fund to compensate those countries, primarily in the Global South, who have done the least to cause climate breakdown but who are being impacted the most by the damage of increasingly unpredictable and extreme weather patterns and conditions. However, this significant and long overdue commitment is completely undermined by the ongoing lack of agreement of all governments to phase down ALL fossil fuels. Without this, the efforts to stay below 1.5C will be beyond our reach, given that global tipping points are now being reached. To put this in perspective, back in May 1992 when the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change was formed, 178 member states unanimously agreed to bring CO2 emissions down to 1990 levels of 354 parts per million (ppm) by 2000. Since then annual emissions have climbed 65% and now stand at 420 ppm (levels stood at 280 ppm in the pre-industrial era). And so the fight for climate justice and climate stability goes on. According to Carbon Brief "Tuvalu also became the first country in the world to endorse the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative , which aims to trigger a global fossil-fuel phase-out through the establishment of an international treaty, in a similar way to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons .". You can endorse this campaign as an organisation or individual via the above weblink. We shall watch this development with interest. Meanwhile in Shropshire….We Clanged for COP27 On Saturday 12th November environmental groups across Shropshire Clanged for COP27 as part of a Global Day of Action organised by the Global Justice Coalition to raise the alarm about the Climate and Ecological Emergency. Gatherings took place in Wem, Market Drayton and Ironbridge where drums and saucepans were clanged and bells were rung to demand world leaders take climate action and provide financial support to the global south for the climate related damage they are facing. Previous Next

< Back SSCA Four years on: Our next steps Jane Cullen 3 Oct 2023 Looking ahead for 2023 and beyond SSCA is now four years old and we are halfway through our benefactor’s very generous donation. The coordinators have enabled SSCA to continue to strengthen networks across Shropshire, building closer links with local climate and environment groups and wider voluntary and local government organisations, to support the county’s transition towards net zero. This in turn benefits peoples’ health, wellbeing and finances. This work has culminated in the development of our new website which showcases the fantastic work that is already happening across Shropshire to help inspire individuals, communities, and organisations to take climate and environmental action. We will notify you of the launch of the new website very soon.SSCA is now entering a decisive phase which requires us to make moves towards acquiring future funding to sustain our work. This is more vital than ever. Any support, advice, or experience that readers can offer would be very welcome. This could take the form of a small monthly donation from as many supporters as possible. If you are willing and able to do this please set up a BACS transfer to the following bank account: Marches Energy Agency; Sort Code: 08-92-99; Account Number: 65044713; Reference: DONATION SSCA-NCZ. We need volunteers to support our many initiatives including the retrofit exhibition, producing and sharing user friendly toolkits and videos to support and inspire people to take local climate and Nature action, updating our new website, writing articles for the newsletter and representing us at events and talks. Please contact us by email on SSCA@mea.org.uk you will be very warmly received. Our next steps: Action Learning Project The major focus of our time and energy over the next 12 months will be on an Action Learning Research project. We have received a grant from Shropshire Council’s Climate Change Taskforce to undertake an exploration of 3 or 4 communities in South Shropshire and how they can adapt and develop resilience in the face of the Climate and Nature crises as they transition towards net zero. The purpose of the project is to learn from their experience, to find out what is successful, what is not and as far as possible the reasons. One aspect to emphasize is that these projects have to be driven by the community itself, it is not being done to or for them!We are working on developing some project possibilities covering a number of types of community including: a primary school (how to decarbonise a school); a town at the beginning of the climate action process (how to decarbonise a community); a very rural parish (how to decarbonise a remote community); an organisation with county wide membership (how to use an existing network to effect change across communities); and finally an old community building (how to decarbonise a building and use it as a wider community resource to effect behaviour change). I hope you find our future exciting and that you will enthusiastically support this refocusing of direction. Previous Next

< Back The Shrewsbury Northwest Relief Road: why we should be concerned Nick Read 1 Dec 2023 Roads or Nature? We are very grateful to Denise Crampton (Ludlow 21 Sustainable Transport Group) and Mike Streetly (Better Shrewsbury Transport) for their contributions to this article. On the 31st October 2023 Shropshire Council (SC) Northern Planning Committee approved the construction of the North West Relief Road (NWRR) by a majority of 6 to 5. Mike Streetly, of Better Shrewsbury Transport (BeST), comments: “The planning conditions are still to be agreed with relevant parties such as the Environment Agency. The full business case is expected to come to the council for approval during autumn 2024 and, if approved, work to build the road could start as early as summer 2025. The cost appears to be underwritten by money from the cancelled HS2 programme.” The decision ignores both expert and popular objections, and will cancel out the carbon saving initiatives we need to reach net zero carbon. The proposal is both out of date and ecologically destructive. Out of date…. It is almost 40 years ago that the NWRR was proposed, based on historic objectives of facilitating private transport. It will be a single carriageway road linking the A5 from the Welshpool Road roundabout in the west to the Ellesmere Road roundabout in the East. New bridges over the River Severn (and its flood plain) and the Shrewsbury-Chester railway line will have to be built. SC have combined its Oxon link road application within the NWRR, primarily to facilitate Shrewsbury’s West Urban expansion (SUE) strategic objectives. CPRE has shown that road schemes generate more traffic than background trends over the longer term, leading to permanent and significant environmental and landscape damage with little evidence of economic benefit to local communities. To achieve carbon reduction objectives, we must reduce privately owned transport in favour of shared and public travel options. Available resources should be directed at improvements in our existing shared transport network – trains and buses – and to facilitate active travel such as cycling. The NWRR cuts across Shropshire Council’s own climate emergency declaration in 2019 and the UK’s legally binding net zero pledges. It is estimated that NWRR’s construction will create 48,000 tonnes of embedded carbon emissions (for an estimated annual operational saving of 359 tonnes); it won’t be carbon neutral for more than 130 years! Ecologically destructive…. Organisations including the Woodland Trust, Shrewsbury Friends of the Earth, Shropshire Wildlife Trust, and SC’s own Ecology and Tree Teams have voiced concern. The NWRR conflicts with the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF), which seeks to protect ancient trees from destruction. We risk losing 4km of biodiverse hedgerows; over ten hectares of vital agricultural land; and over a thousand trees – which include 9 magnificent veteran trees one of which is the 550-year-old ‘Darwin Oak’ . NWWR would remove significant quantities of high quality agricultural land and, once developed, would generate further air, noise and particulate pollution exacerbating the environmental destruction. Concerns have also been raised over the risk to water supply from both contamination and flooding. The Environment Agency has raised objections about the risk that the NWRR poses to the water supply for 100,000 people in Shrewsbury and west Shropshire (as far south as Church Stretton). The scheme involves building a roundabout above the inner Source Protection Zone (SPZ) of Severn Trent Water's Shelton borehole. The council has acknowledged that “were contamination of the town’s water supply to occur, the impact would be catastrophic.” What can you do? Please sign the petition to Save the Darwin Oak Change.org https://www.change.org/p/save-the-darwin-oak If you are a resident of Shrewsbury or west Shropshire (as far south as Church Stretton) an Open Letter to the Environment Agency and Severn Trent about the water contamination issue has been written which you can sign while the link remains active https://forms.gle/ZDsHk71RR6NmhPQi7 Look at the BeST website https://www.bettershrewsburytransport.org/ and Facebook pages for how to get involved. BeST is exploring legal options to challenge the situation, either through Public Inquiry or Judicial review. Discuss your concerns with your local councilor. Previous Next

< Back Shropshire Council's approval of 200,000-bird intensive poultry unit overturned by High Court Julie Howe 17 Jun 2025 New environmental considerations for planning authorities Shropshire Council lost in a High Court ruling in June, overturning the planning authority’s approval of a 200,000-bird intensive poultry unit near Shrewsbury in the River Severn catchment. The case was brought by local campaigner and River Action board member Dr Alison Caffyn, supported by River Action . She said: “There are nearly 65 chickens for every person in Shropshire and yet the council still thought we needed more. This ruling proves what we've said all along: the planning system has been putting our rivers at risk. This case is a win for communities across the UK who are standing up to the environmental degradation caused by industrial factory farming.” This ruling means that planning authorities must: Assess the cumulative impacts of having multiple intensive agricultural developments in one river catchment before granting permission for another. Consider how livestock production units dispose of the waste from treatment facilities downstream, including from anaerobic digestion plants. Previous Next

< Back The story of how Bishop’s Castle’s Climate Action Plan has been achieved Mike Watkins 7 May 2024 Working together as a Town Council and community group The Bishop’s Castle Climate Action Group [CAG] had been developing a ‘Sustainability Plan’, drawn-up out of the community’s responses to the 2016 Town Plan survey. Then, in 2019, the group convinced Bishop’s Castle's Town Council to declare a Climate & Nature Emergency, and in return agreed to help produce a Climate Action Plan for the town. The Climate Action Plan was adopted by the Town Council in early 2020, serving as a template for an active partnership approach, containing actions for the Town Council and for the CAG, with some of the former’s actions – where the Town Council’s resources and knowledge were lacking - being undertaken for them by the CAG. For example, the town’s carbon footprint measurement. A Town Councillor has been allocated the Environment portfolio, and works closely with the CAG, including attending its monthly meetings. The group encourages the Town Council to have an environment item on its agenda quarterly, in line with the quarterly Climate Action Plan audit reports which the CAG submits. An important lesson learned by our small group, was to avoid including too much detail in the CAP, instead having a focussed and manageable Action Plan section. We have put our more detailed ideas in a separate Part 2 document which will be updated in slower time. A copy of the Bishop's Castle Climate and Nature Action Plan [Part 1] can be read on Light Foot’s website and we welcome other groups downloading and adapting it for their own areas as required. We are happy to help with any questions other groups may have on this subject. Please get in touch by e-mailing climateaction@lightfootenterprises.org Previous Next

< Back Shaping careers and growing the economy. Oh! And tackling climate change! Kev Oubridge interviews Mollie Roberts 1 Sept 2025 A young climate activist's perspective With Climate change, Nature loss and corporate responsibility now global priorities, the net zero sector is growing rapidly. As a young person, whether you want to work with nature, retrofit homes or build wind turbines, opportunities are opening up. A survey by the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), found the net zero sector is growing three times faster than the overall UK economy, providing high-wage jobs across the country while cutting greenhouse gas emissions and increasing energy security. The net zero economy grew by 10% in 2024, generating £83bn in gross value added (GVA).Notably, the West Midlands was a growth hotspot, along with Yorkshire and the Humber, and south-west of England, bucking the trend of economic growth being confined to London and the south-east. As we all know though, getting jobs and moving into a career as a young person starting out is no easy task: you might not have the right qualifications, competition is fierce and it’s difficult to know exactly what a role entails from a job ad. There’s also the catch-22 of employers looking for people with experience when that’s the one thing young people tend to lack. Despite these challenges, twenty-year old Mollie Roberts is optimistic about her future, but has had to work hard to get where she is. Home schooled, Mollie says she enjoyed the freedom it gave her to study topics in depth and she remembers lots of interesting field trips, including a visit to a chilli factory, and going out on the boat with local fishermen in Devon. She took humanities A-levels before realising later that she wanted to take a more science and environment-related career direction. So she took a part-time Open University Certificate in Higher Education, Environment: Journeys Through a Changing World, while at the same time working full-time as a barista in a local coffee bar. Mollie is now applying to University of Exeter to do a four-year degree, which would include a year-long research placement. Confessing to enjoying research, Mollie says she could go on to do a Masters, although her preferred option is a research job or apprenticeship, ideally on a ship in the arctic. This would involve perhaps studying solar power or changes to the ocean or glaciers. Accepting that her arctic ambitions might take a while to come to fruition, she says she would also like to work overseas in a council or government role working within the community, where she could have a tangible impact on Climate change. Mollie will be supported in doing this by an impressive CV, which includes a number of paid for and volunteering roles – she currently works as a Ranger for the National Trust at Carding Mill Valley, as well as a day a week at Stokesay Castle for English Heritage. As a closing question I asked Mollie how she felt about Climate change. Her immediate response was ‘Worried! Big time’. She went on to say that this made it difficult for her to talk about future jobs and her career, not knowing what the future holds for her and for her children, should she have any. This was a salutary reminder to me that Climate anxiety is a thing and I might have been better asking the question up front. A recent Woodland Trust study found that 70% of 16-24 year-olds are worried about Climate change, and the majority of people from older age groups are similarly concerned. Perhaps a way to cope with anxiety is to talk about Climate change with others and share your concerns. You could join a climate or nature focused group or sign up for their newsletter. Read about or take a free online course or consider attending a Climate Fresk workshop to learn more about Climate change, why it’s happening and what we can do about it. You could even follow Mollie’s example and pursue a career in the net zero sector. It’s growing rapidly and there are all sorts of opportunities for those with drive and determination. Previous Next

< Back Local groups meet with Julia Buckley (Labour MP for Shrewsbury & Atcham) David Matthews 21 Jun 2025 Q&A focused on how we can better protect Nature and take climate action On Saturday 21 June, Shrewsbury MP Julia Buckley joined a community Q&A about Climate and Nature issues at the Shropshire Wildlife Trust. The event was hosted by Zero Hour (the campaign for the Climate and Nature Bill), Better Shrewsbury Transport*, Up Sewage Creek and Shrewsbury Vegans. It was chaired by Richard Grindle, CEO of the Shropshire Wildlife Trust. Julia took questions from the audience on a range of topics including river pollution, the Planning and Infrastructure Bill, the North West Relief Road, factory farming, and nature loss. Jamie Russell from Zero Hour, who helped organise the event, says: ‘Julia was exceedingly generous with her time and fielded robust questions on a range of topics. She explained her desire to use her role on the Environmental Audit Committee** to push the Government to be bolder in its response to the Climate and Nature crisis, and agreed to join crossparty MPs who have signed the Early Day Motion in support of the Climate and Nature Bill .*** She also talked very powerfully about being shocked by a Parliamentary briefing from leading scientists about the devastating rate of change being witnessed in Antarctica. Over the next few months, Zero Hour will be supporting local residents in constituencies across the UK as they set up similar community Q&A events with their MPs to push them to prioritise the climate and nature crisis in all aspects of their work. If you’d like to be involved, get in touch at campaign@zerohour.uk ’. ***The Climate and Nature Bill returns to Parliament on 11 July. The Zero Hour campaign is asking residents to write to the Prime Minister ahead of this date asking him to give the Bill emergency debate time, as well as writing to your MP to request they sign the Early Day Motion on this much-needed Bill. Write to the PM to ask for debate time. Write to your MP about the Early Day Motion. Join Zero Hour at The Climate Coalition's mass lobby of MPs in Westminster on 9 July. *With reference to Shrewsbury, Julia is supporting the active travel initiatives associated with the Big Town Plan and better integration of rail and bus services. **Julia is a member of the Environment Audit Committee and pointed out that the Energy Security and Net Zero Committee (ESNZ) is more directly involved in plans to achieve net zero, so we should consider how to influence that committee too. Previous Next

< Back Climate campaigners find common ground with Helen Morgan, North Shropshire MP John Hargreaves 18 Oct 2024 On the topics of awareness raising, pensions, energy and farming Helen Morgan MP met climate activists from Market Drayton, Wem and Whitchurch on 18 October, as part of the national Common Ground initiative by the Climate Coalition. The North Shropshire climate campaigners joined hundreds around the country who met their local Members of Parliament to discuss how to work together for effective action in the face of climate breakdown. ‘We appreciated Helen Morgan’s commitment to climate action, including her support for the important Climate and Nature bill now before Parliament, as well as her very well-informed and positive approach to the issues we discussed. We look forward to working together in the future to support climate action at local and national levels,’ said John Hargreaves, Chair of Market Drayton Climate Action. At the meeting Helen Morgan responded to four specific requests, as well as sharing her insights into some of the challenges and political approaches to action on climate. The importance of leadership in influencing public awareness of climate issues Helen Morgan agreed that although significant action on climate must come at government level, widespread community understanding and support will be required. The climate campaigners asked for Ms Morgan to help build public awareness of the issues by using opportunities in her communications to refer to climate links in many of the initiatives and areas in which she is involved. She responded that this is an area she will bear in mind in future. Ms Morgan pointed out that communicating about the climate emergency is challenging in the face of social media responses from climate deniers, and that biodiversity issues are often received more readily. Climate campaigners can support Ms Morgan in referring to climate by using social media to welcome her comments. Pension holdings in fossil fuels Liberal Democrat policy is for all pension funds to be divested from fossil fuels. Although locally there have been repeated efforts urging the Shropshire Pension Fund to stop fossil fuel investments, there have been negative responses or no response at all. The climate groups asked Helen Morgan to write to the Chair of the Shropshire Pension Fund to ask what steps they are taking to divest as a matter of urgency from fossil fuels, which she agreed to do. Supporting farmers to move to sustainable practice North Shropshire is an agricultural area in which we are witnessing loss of biodiversity and the increasingly the detrimental impact of bigger farms, including impacts on carbon emissions. The climate campaigners asked Helen Morgan to write on behalf of farmers in North Shropshire to ministers in Department for Energy Security and Net Zero and Department for Environment, Farming and Rural Affairs to ask about how they are planning across departments to incentivise sustainable practice which will be manageable, accessible and economically viable for farmers. Ms Morgan said she would write to the ministers, and also that she expects Tim Fallon as Liberal Democrat lead on farming to be active on these issues in Parliament. Barbara Cotterell from Wem Area Climate Action mentioned the possibility of a farming forum in Wem next year, which Ms Morgan could consider attending. Energy efficiency and renewable energy Chloe King from Wem, who works for an energy charity, gained Ms Morgan’s agreement to write to the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, asking for retrofit grants to be reformed and to be more accessible. Chloe will send supporting data on experience with the difficulty in gaining support through the grants. Ms Morgan also described cross-party support in Parliament for requiring solar panels on all new builds, as well as moves to require landlords to upgrade housing to be more energy efficient. On behalf of the climate groups, John Hargreaves thanked Ms Morgan for her willingness to support climate action. ‘It is heartening for us to have national representation that recognises the crucial steps that must be taken toward a safe and healthy future,’ he said. Previous Next

< Back Net Zero Progress - How are we doing in Shropshire? - not well - a NWRR update Nancy Stewart 1 Mar 2025 How the North West Relief Road for Shrewsbury jeopardises Shropshire's climate commitments Shropshire Council risks tearing up its climate commitments as it continues to push for the construction of the proposed North West Relief Road (NWRR). Following a recent recalculation of the carbon emissions associated with the road, the planning officer has admitted this project will undermine the council's 2030 net zero targets. Building the NWRR contradicts the meaning of ‘emergency’ in the climate crisis. In recommending the NWRR be approved by the planning committee, the planning officer sought to downplay its impact by stating that although the additional emissions would burst through Shropshire’s carbon budget, compared to global emissions it would be a relatively small amount. The Council could shift to 2050 as a target for net zero, he said. The proposed NWRR scheme remains controversial ahead of May’s elections, with different candidates in favour or opposing it. Why not ask your prospective councillors what their views are? Market Drayton Climate Action has recently responded to a few of the arguments made in favour of the NWRR in response to the group raising these issues: Pro: ‘For Market Drayton residents using the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital, the NWRR will provide a much quicker option than that offered at present. This would be particularly important during a medical emergency.’ Response: We would like to make an equally emotional appeal: that by hugely weakening our response to the climate emergency, we are going to be facing more medical emergencies in Market Drayton. Pro: To offset the carbon emissions of the NWRR ‘we are committing to the equivalent increase in carbon offsetting’. Response: Carbon offsets have a very dubious record and should never be used as an excuse for increasing dangerous emissions levels. Better Shrewsbury Transport comments: ‘We estimate that to absorb these emissions within ten years the council would need to plant around 1.4 million extra trees – and keep them alive.’ Pro: The NWRR will ‘deliver major reductions in traffic, congestion and air pollution in Shrewsbury and many surrounding villages, boost public transport, cycling and walking, and attract new jobs and investment into the county.’ Response: This is highly contestable: The UK Climate Change Committee says ‘“investment in roads should be contingent on analysis justifying how they contribute to the UK’s pathway to Net Zero” – not to investment in the economy. Shropshire Council’s own modelling shows the road would have a limited effect on congestion in the town centre – while some roads might see peak flow reductions of 1 in 4 cars, many town centre roads will see no improvement. Meanwhile, traffic will increase on other roads servicing the new route. There is well established evidence that, rather than reduce congestion, new roads actually create more traffic and fail to deliver the economic benefits claimed (e.g. CPRE, 2017). Shropshire Council has not fully investigated the potential to reduce congestion by supporting walking, cycling and public transport. The Big Town Plan Masterplan for Shrewsbury has outlined exactly how these alternative measures could work but Shropshire Council has not included this in its traffic modelling. The original planning application for this road received a record-breaking 5400 objections, with only 220 people supporting it. Shrewsbury Town Council opposes the project. The revised carbon figures point firmly to the right course of action – immediate abandonment of plans for the NWRR.You can read Shropshire Climate Action's original review of the proposed road here . Our position that Shropshire can't meet its climate commitments if the road is built remains unchanged Previous Next

< Back Government Consultation on National Planning Policy affecting the climate crisis Jane Cullen 28 Feb 2023 Shropshire's climate action groups come together to respond to the consultation and the on-shore wind ban I n February SSCA convened a meeting with Zero Carbon Shropshire and representatives of other climate and environment groups in Shropshire (including Lightfoot Enterprises, CPRE Shropshire, Bishop’s Castle Climate Action Group, Share Energy, Shropshire and Telford Community Energy, Ludlow 21, Stretton Climate Care, Clun Climate and Environment Group) to discuss a response to the Government consultation on the National Planning Policy Framework Consultation , specifically on the topics covered under: Chapter 7 - Protecting the environment and tackling climate change; Chapter 8 - Onshore wind and energy efficiency. The deadline for the consultation is 2nd March. If you would like to see a copy of our response please email: SSCA@mea.org.uk Taking further action on the on-shore wind ban A response to the same Planning Consultation is an Open Letter from Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall and over 100 leading thinkers on energy and the environment to The Rt Hon Michael Gove MP, Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, and The Rt Hon Grant Shapps MP, Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, calling on them to lift the on-shore wind ban in England – which has the power to address climate change, help the UK meet its net zero targets, and give us all greener, cheaper electricity. We have signed this letter along with other Shropshire climate action groups. The letter can be viewed on the We Are Possible website . You can take action via this link . Previous Next

< Back SSCA met with Philip Dunne (MP for the Ludlow Constituency) Nick Read 11 Apr 2023 SSCA discussed our first 6 months and next steps On Tuesday 11th April Jane Cullen (SSCA Chair), Fiona Morgan and Nick Read (SSCA Project Co-ordinators) met local MP Philip Dunne. Although Philip had met both Jane and Nick previously this was an opportunity to introduce Fiona and to highlight the progress that had been made since the appointment of the two Project Coordinators in June. He was impressed with the level of activity within his constituency, the degree of coordination and collaboration that was being achieved, but also recognised the need to significantly increase climate-related actions. A sense of urgency had been engendered by a recent visit of the Environmental Audit Committee (which Philip chairs) to the UK Arctic Research Station, whose scientists warn that global warming is proceeding faster in arctic regions than had been predicted. Philip also indicated that the Climate and Ecology Bill (currently going through the House of Lords) was unlikely to have enough parliamentary time to succeed in the House of Commons. On a more positive note he wanted to use his influence to enable clusters of farmers to work together on landscape scale interventions. Previous Next

< Back Follow up webinar to the Accelerating Change conference on climate action for Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin David Matthews 20 Nov 2024 Planning the next steps for the network On 20 November Shropshire Climate Action held the follow up webinar to the Accelerating Change conference on climate action for Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin: to update on the progress made since the Accelerating Change conference which took place back in May to explore the next steps and opportunities to get involved in emerging projects to accelerate climate action in communities across Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin to feedback on what local groups and communities need and how they can contribute to county-wide initiatives. The webinar identified a number of projects that could help collaboration and climate action across Shropshire, Telford & Wrekin, identified several volunteering opportunities. discussed how Shropshire Climate Action can support local environmental groups more effectively, and what local groups can bring to the table. You can view the presentation slides, a recording of the event, the feedback from the breakout groups, and find out how to volunteer here . Previous Next