Many local councils are working on Neighbourhood Development Plans (NDPs); others have not started or have plans already adopted. Cornwall Council has declared a climate emergency, and a recent scientific report requires us all to do our part into halving our climate changing emissions by 2030. If we do this, the future in Cornwall could be much brighter for our children and grandchildren.

Parish and Town Councils have always played a crucial role in helping their local populations to adapt in changing times. Now is the time for developing and working within NDPs in ambitious ways which help increase local renewable energy and provide more local resilience in the face of external threats. Come to the conference to find out how to do this and what the Government and Cornwall Council suggest we do in NDP development to help in climate change action.

Programme

The science now - globally and locally

Dr Stephan Harrison is a climate scientist at Exeter University working on climate change impacts, natural hazards and climate change adaptation. He has worked for nearly 30 years on earth system responses to climate change in many of the world’s mountain regions. He is also the Director of Climate Change Risk Management (www.ccrm.co.uk) which he set up in 2002 at Oxford University to provide scientific advice on climate change for governments and businesses. He is head of the Climate Change Committee which advises the UK Health and Safety Executive on climate changes risks for all nuclear sites in the UK.

A Positive vision for zero carbon Cornwall: what is a sustainable Cornwall?

Manda Brookman is a social entrepreneur, lecturer, permaculturalist, disruptor & activist on climate, social justice, land, neo-liberal economic & systems thinking. She is Director of Permanently Brilliant, co-founded Cornwall Sustainable Tourism Project which now has 3,000 members over fifty countries. She also founded Café Disruptif and the Cornwall: a Million Acts of Sanctuary initiatives.

How we get to a Zero Carbon Cornwall : what this means in practice

Charmian Larke FRSA is an energy specialist who has been working on renewable energy for Cornwall for decades. She carried out the first UK local study for an energy policy for Cornwall, based on local energy resources. She has skills in hydro, wind and solar energy and works on reducing climate change emissions locally in many different companies and via locally relevant strategy development. She is chair of Fal Energy Partnership which recently installed a 30kW solar system on the Dracaena Centre in Falmouth.

Developing local policy: NDPs in action

Neil Farrington: Community Energy Plus works to help communities throughout Cornwall in the development of their local renewable energy resources. He is on the board of Community Power Cornwall which provides funding for community energy projects and is developing a peer to peer review process to increase local renewable energy skills. He has been significantly involved in the recent Chacewater Parish NDP process.

How Cornwall Council is supporting climate strategies and action:

A 'round table' discussion and development of actions for the future following Cornwall Council's Climate Emergency Declaration. Cornwall Councillors and Officers will be at this session together with previous speakers and others to explore the options for Cornwall and the opportunities that could benefit the local area including the formation of relevant and useful emergency plans.