Please take 2 mins to tell ESCC: stop backing fossil fuel expansion!

Please take 2 minutes to email our latest question to East Sussex County Council (ESCC)’s next meeting, and help hold them accountable for continuing to back the expansion of fossil fuels.

Advertisement

We need YOUR help to force ESCC to debate a proper windfall tax on Big Oil!

We now have over 3,700 signatures on our latest petition to East Sussex County Council, demanding that it divests from fossil fuels and supports a proper windfall tax on the giant oil & gas companies.

We now need YOUR help to collect the remaining 1,300 and force ESCC to debate these issues at County Hall!

If you know of any upcoming events where you could collect signatures (you can find a partial list below) or can take it round your friends and neighbours then that would be wonderful.

You can download a read-to-print copy of the petition here, or email divesteastsussex@gmail.com to be sent copies through the post.

Please send divestment Christmas / New Year cards to the Councillors on the East Sussex Pension Committee!

Please take 5 minutes to send a divestment Christmas card to (at least) one of the Councillors on the East Sussex Pension Committee – the five-person decision-making body for the East Sussex Pension Fund (the local government pension scheme covering Brighton & Hove as well as East Sussex).

Carolling santas and elves bring climate message to Robertsbridge

Press release
Divest East Sussex [1]
12 December

More info: 07596 483 272

PHOTO: https://tinyurl.com/divestmentcarolsinging [Elves and santas carol singing in Roberstbridge on Saturday 10 December. Photo credit: Divest East Sussex]

CAROLLING SANTAS AND ELVES BRING CLIMATE MESSAGE TO ROBERTSBRIDGE
Carols used to urge local Councillor to take stand on fossil fuels

Saturday 10 December, Robertsbridge: Climate campaigners dressed as santas and elves took to the streets of Robertsbridge on Saturday (10 December), singing ‘divestment Christmas carols’ urging local Councillor Paul Redstone to take a stand on fossil fuels.

Sample lyrics included the following (to the tune of ‘Away in a Manger’): ‘BP, Shell and Exxon, want to keep burning oil / If we let them continue then the planet will boil / Oh Councillor Redstone, of you we request / That you do some hard thinking, and then support divest’.

Press release + photos: Climate campaigners hold tug of war outside County Hall

Press release
Divest East Sussex [1]
6 December

 2022

More info: 07596 483 272

PHOTO: https://tinyurl.com/climatetugofwar and https://tinyurl.com/escctugofwar [CAPTION: The tug of war between fossil fuels and climate action, outside County Hall, 6 December 2022. Photo: Steve Lewis]

CLIMATE CAMPAIGNERS HOLD TUG OF WAR BETWEEN FOSSIL FUELS AND CLIMATE ACTION OUTSIDE COUNTY HALL
Demands on County Council to stop investing in fossil fuels, oppose UK government’s dash for gas and support a proper windfall tax on Big Oil

Tuesday 6 December, County Hall, Lewes: Climate campaigners from across Brighton, Hove and East Sussex held a tug of war between fossil fuels (oil, coal & gas) and climate action outside County Hall this morning (Tuesday 6 December), demanding that East Sussex County Council (ESCC) takes action on fossil fuels.



The protest featured a street theatre show by The Crude Oil Mechanicals, a company made up of East Sussex residents. Characters includes Lord Oil, Lady Gas, Council Leader Keith Glazier, East Sussex Pension Committee chair Gerard Fox, the Wind, the Sun, and a nine-foot ‘corporate oil giant’. It was held to coincide with ESCC’s Full Council meeting.

Campaigners are demanding that ESCC make a commitment to fully divest from fossil fuels, oppose the Government’s dash for gas in the North Sea, and support a proper windfall tax on Big Oil’s massive profits. A petition with these demands has already been signed by over 2,900 members of the public [2]. According to its own rules, ESCC will have to debate these issues once this petition reaches 5,000 signatures.

Join the tug of war between fossil fuels and climate action outside County Hall on 6 December

Climate campaigners hang ‘Divest Now’ banner on County Hall

Press Release
Divest East Sussex [1]
11 November 2022
More info: 07596 483 272

PHOTO: https://tinyurl.com/divestnowbanner [CAPTION: The ‘ESCC: Divest Now’ banner left on County Hall, 11 November 2022. Credit: Steve Lewis]

CLIMATE CAMPAIGNERS HANG BANNER ON COUNTY HALL
East Sussex County Council urged to ‘Divest Now’ as world’s leading diplomat condemns ‘financial enablers’ of fossil fuel companies

11 November 2022, County Hall, Lewes: Climate campaigners have hung a giant banner bearing the words ‘ESCC: Divest Now’ on the side of County Hall in Lewes this morning. A photo of the banner (see above) was emailed to Divest East Sussex.

This week the UN Secretary-General used the COP27 climate summit in Egypt to send a strong message to fossil fuel companies and their ‘financial enablers’: ‘Using bogus ‘net-zero’ pledges to cover up massive fossil fuel expansion is reprehensible. It is rank deception. This toxic cover-up could push our world over the climate cliff. The sham must end.’ [2]

We need YOUR help to force a debate on fossil fuels at County Hall!

The UK Government has chosen to side with Big Oil & Gas: making the public pay to protect these companies’ colossal windfall profits, while simultaneously doubling-down on fossil fuels with a dash for gas in the North Sea.

This is happening in the wake of the devastating floods that have displaced more than 30 million people in Pakistan, Europe  experiencing what may be its worst drought in 500 years, and China experiencing the most severe heatwave recorded anywhere.


If you live in East Sussex, Hove or Brighton* here’s one simple thing that you can do to push back: sign and share this petition to East Sussex County Council and force the East Sussex Conservatives to publicly defend this government’s disastrous policies: https://tinyurl.com/affordablegreenenergy 



If we can get 5,000 signatures then the Council’s rules say that they *have* to debate these issues at County Hall in Lewes – and we know that they *really* don’t want to do this.

We need your help in Seaford, Brighton, Hastings and … your local area!

Last week, the Leader of East Sussex County Council (ESCC) Keith Glazier once again refused to back calls for a proper windfall tax on the vast profits that oil and gas companies are making out of the cost-of-living crisis.

Councillor Glazier doesn’t want to talk about the fossil fuel companies that are driving the climate crisis, or defend the UK government’s disastrous policies on them. But we can force him and the other ESCC Councillors to do this by getting 5,000 local people to sign this petition: https://tinyurl.com/affordablegreenenergy

Can you help us reach this target before 6 December (the date of ESCC’s next big meeting)?

We’ll be collecting signatures in Seaford and Brighton this weekend (alongside XR’s national bus tour) and going door-to-door with the petition in Hastings next week – see below for details.

Please let us know if you can come and help collect signatures at any of these events, or if you’d like to help organise a petition drive in your local area (we can help!): divesteastsussex@gmail.com or 07596 483 272.

Council leader rejects call to back windfall tax on Big Oil (again)

Press Release
Divest East Sussex [1]
11 October 2022

More info: 07596 483 272

PHOTOS: https://bit.ly/3ekCDBq [Climate campaigners from across East Sussex, Brighton and Hove, outside County Hall, Lewes on 11 October 2022. PHOTO: Divest East Sussex]

COUNCIL LEADER REJECTS CALL TO BACK WINDFALL TAX ON BIG OIL

As Big Oil rakes in massive windfall profits during cost-of-living crisis, Council Leader claims he ‘can’t effect the wider world’



Tuesday 11 October, County Hall, Lewes: The Leader of East Sussex County Council, Councillor Keith Glazier, rejected a call for him to publicly back a proper special permanent tax on Big Oil, at this morning’s Full Council meeting. Councillor Glazier told the Council: ‘I can’t effect the wider world’.



During the meeting, Councillor Wendy Maples (Green, Forest Row) called on Cllr Glazier to issue a statement supporting a proper special permanent tax on Big Oil – set at very high rate, as they have in Norway, where the overall tax rate on the oil and gas sector is 78% [2] – as a means of tackling both the cost-of-living and climate crises. The UK government has repeatedly refused to bring in such a tax [3].