Festival finale looked to the future
It was the final day of the climate change festival, which ran for a week in Birmingham, which captured its essence. Music and dancing in a city square on Sunday 8 June, with 160 people taking part in a kind of mass tai chi. Relaxed and free, a day which quietly dared people to dream about how much better life in a very low carbon, well-designed city could be.
Being a Sunday, of course, people were also sitting around reading the papers. There were two interesting reports in The Observer. One was an advance report on how Britain will find it impossible to meet its carbon emission target to ensure temperatures do not rise more than 2C, a key threshhold for dangerous climate change. Even with existing policies, the Stockholm Network still thinks there could be a 90 per cent chance of a temperature rise of 3C.
The other report was that gas bills are set rise by 43 per cent in the next 12 months and electricity by 21 per cent, an average £360 per home, because of a sudden surge in market prices.
One of the strongest messages which came through from the festival was how much people want their leaders to lead on climate change.
Part of that leadership involves boldly communicating a vision. And the other article which people were sitting around and reading was specially written by Jonathon Porritt for the festival, Break the mould. He describes how we can put the heart and soul back into our cities. How a very low carbon makeover gives us the chance to do things differently. His vision is that sustainable towns and cities will be more beautiful, fairer and more prosperous places to live and work.
