WE NEED A FOSSIL FUEL NON-PROLIFERATION TREATY!
Phase out fossil fuels – Fast-track solutions
Special Sussex-wide event with Peter Newell (Sussex Uni) author of Power Shift: The Global Political Economy of Energy Transitions and Steering Group member of the Fossil Fuel NPT initiative.
7 – 8pm, Thursday 11 February, on Zoom
Register now: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZEqcuCqrD4rHt3bfQu3vl8f5w0BbJGODvxg
The East Sussex Pension Fund – the local government pension scheme for Brighton and Hove – currently has over £100m invested in the giant fossil fuel companies that are driving the climate crisis – companies like Shell and BP.
With less than a year to go before next year’s crucial UN climate summit in Glasgow, we need all institutions to be showing leadership on the climate crisis.
Join us on Zoom on Tuesday 12 January (7 – 8pm) to find out what you can do to help divest the East Sussex Pension Fund in 2021.
Register now: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZIsduihpj8iGNSZB1uQtin9tpybB9qpFdt1 and help spread the word!
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/415558929565503
Continue reading Brighton & Hove residents: Your local fossil fuel divestment campaign needs you! Join the Zoom meeting on 12 January.
A pair of Christmas elves carrying a giant six-foot ‘Divest East Sussex’ cracker* delivered a special message to East Sussex County Council (ESCC) on Wednesday 16 December: ‘It’s crackers investing in fossil fuels!’
The socially-distanced pair walked along the south coast to deliver an open letter to the County Council, drawing its attention to the profound effect that the climate emergency is having on the Arctic and its peoples and the urgent need for ESCC to stop investing in the fossil fuel (oil, coal & gas) companies that are driving this crisis.
You can support the elves’ action by sending a Christmas card to your County Councillor (or the Leader of ESCC, if you’re based in Brighton or Hove) wishing them a low-carbon Christmas and a fully divested 2021 – full details and suggested text below. Continue reading We need your help to tell ESCC: ‘It’s crackers investing in fossil fuels!’
Press Release
Divest East Sussex [1]
15 December 2020
More info: 07596 483 272
ELVES WITH GIANT CRACKER TO SEND CLIMATE MESSAGE TO COUNTY COUNCIL
‘It’s crackers investing in fossil fuels’ say diminutive Arctic guests
IMAGE: PHOTO: https://tinyurl.com/elvesonseafront (Caption: One of the Christmas elves on Hastings seafront.)
Wednesday 16 December: A pair of Christmas elves carrying a giant six-foot ‘Divest East Sussex’ cracker will be sending a special message to East Sussex County Council (ESCC) this tomorrow (16 December): ‘It’s crackers investing in fossil fuels!’ Continue reading Elves with giant cracker to deliver climate message to County Council: ‘It’s crackers investing in fossil fuels!’
The following letter was delivered to East Sussex County Council (ESCC) on Wednesday 16 December (English translation underneath): Continue reading ‘These changes are a warning siren for the world’ – a letter to ESCC from the Christmas elves
Press Release
Divest East Sussex [1]
1 December 2020
More info: 07596 483 272
COUNCIL ADMITS DISMAL FAILURE OF POLICY ON FOSSIL FUELS
Five years after Paris Climate Agreement not a single oil and gas major aligned with 1.5°C pathway, chair of East Sussex Pension Committee concedes
Tuesday 1 December: East Sussex County Council has finally admitted that its policy of ‘engaging’ with oil and gas companies like Shell and BP has failed to bring a single one of these companies into alignment with the goals of the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement – namely, to keep global warming to ‘well below 2 °C’, pursuing 1.5°C. [2] The admission comes one day after 32 organisations from across East Sussex, Brighton and Hove sent an open letter to the Council calling on it to start treating the climate emergency like an emergency [3].
Continue reading Council admits dismal failure of policy on fossil fuels
Press Release
Divest East Sussex [1]
30 November 2020
More info: 07596 483 272
COUNTY COUNCIL FAILING TO TAKE CLIMATE CHANGE SERIOUSLY – 33 LOCAL GROUPS
Open letter calls on ESCC to start treating the climate emergency like an emergency
Monday 30 November: Thirty-three organisations from across East Sussex, Brighton and Hove have sent an open letter to East Sussex County Council (ESCC) calling on it to start treating the climate emergency like an emergency.
The letter notes that, despite declaring a climate emergency in October 2019, ESCC ‘is still investing local people’s pensions in fossil fuels (oil, coal and gas) and has only formulated a plan to de-carbonise its own activities by 2050, rather than the activities of the entire County, its people, business and services.’ [2]
The signatories call on ESCC: to stop investing local people’s pensions in fossil fuels (oil, coal & gas); to rapidly develop and implement a plan for de-carbonising the whole of the County; and to publicly declare its support for the new Climate and Ecological Emergency Bill which would ensure that the UK plays its fair and proper role in limiting global warming to 1.5°C. [3] Continue reading County Council failing to take climate change seriously – 33 local groups
The following open letter has been sent to all 49 of the current Councillors on East Sussex County Council:
From cyclones in Mozambique to fires in California we’re already seeing the deadly impact of 1ºC of global warming, particularly in the Global South.
Moreover, the window for limiting global warming to 1.5ºC is rapidly closing and doing so will require dramatic cuts in carbon emissions over the next ten years. Failure to do so will lead to calamitous impacts for some of the world’s poorest people.
Yet to date, the actions taken – and the commitments made – by national and local governments here in the UK are failing to deliver the ‘rapid, far-reaching and unprecedented changes in all aspects of society’ that the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change says are required to achieve this goal.
For example, East Sussex County Council (ESCC) has declared a ‘climate emergency’ but is still investing local people’s pensions in fossil fuels (oil, coal and gas) and has only formulated a plan to de-carbonise its own activities by 2050, rather than the activities of the entire County, its people, business and services.
Press Release
Divest East Sussex [1]
24 November 2020
More info: 07596 483 272
COUNCIL PRESSED ON CLIMATE QUESTIONS IT DUCKED AT OCTOBER MEETING
Over ninety members of the public call on ESCC to tell the truth about climate & fossil fuels
Tuesday 24 November: Scores of people from across the County have re-submitted three key questions on climate change to next week’s (1 Dec) East Sussex County Council (ESCC) meeting, after these same questions went unanswered at October’s Full Council meeting [2]. Over ninety people have submitted divestment-related questions to next Tuesday’s meeting.
Continue reading Council pressed on climate questions it ducked at October meeting
We need YOUR* help to get Sussex County Council (ESCC) to tell the truth about climate change & fossil fuels.
Please take 2 mins to email the question below to ESCC by 4pm on 23 November – full details below.
* Residents of East Sussex, Brighton and Hove – ESCC runs *your* Local Government Pension Scheme. Continue reading Tell the truth about climate change & fossil fuels! Email YOUR question to ESCC’s next Full Council meeting by 23 November.
