This site has been set up as a collaborative resource following the Climate Change and Neighbourhood Planning Conference at Tremough Campus on 9 March 2019, which focused on the role Neighbourhood Development Plans could play in cutting our carbon emissions. 

If you have anything you would like for us to add to the resources – or anywhere else on the site – please use the contact button (top right of the site) and send the resource along with a description and we will add them ASAP.

The conference aimed to produce some practical action points for groups and councils to take forward and to feed into Cornwall Council’s Climate Emergency action Plan. We also hope to encourage local working groups to develop as a help to progressing local climate change policy development. Take a look at some videos and presentation slides from the day here:

Watch now

In more recent news, at the 23/04/19 meeting of the Helston Climate Action Group (HCAG), it was decided to create a small number of Working Groups, to facilitate the implementation the climate emergency goals of Helston Town Council (HTC). Follow the link below to read the Working Groups proposal.

Read now

The conference would not have been possible without all the contributors who generously donated their time and resources. Speakers and some information about them is listed below.

  • Dan Stone is a chartered planner with 18 years of experience in planning, including 12 years in local authorities and two years in consultancy and renewables development and currently works for the Centre for Sustainable Energy, a national charity based in Bristol. Dan leads CSE’s work on “low carbon” neighbourhood planning, advising local groups on the integration of climate change adaptation and mitigation policies and sustainable energy within their plans, and was the lead author for CSE’s popularLow Carbon Neighbourhood Planning guidebook. Dan has a long-standing interest in the potential of the planning system as a whole to contribute to sustainable place making, and for the potential of neighbourhood planning specifically to deliver informed consent for some of the changes needed to address climate change, such as an increased role for renewable energy.” CSE are able to offer bespoke planning advice for groups wishing to develop a low carbon neighbourhood plan, so get in touch. .

  • 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.

  • Prof Richard Cochrane is Director of Education and Associate Professor for Renewable Energy at Exeter University. He is a Chartered Engineer and Fellow of the Energy Institute with a passion for Renewable Energy and Engineering Design.

  • Cllr Sue James represents St Just-in-Penwith and is the Portfolio Holder for Environment & Public Protection on Cornwall Council.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • Luci Isaacson is Director and Climate Change Risk and Resilience Consultant for Climate Vision. The company motto is Turning Environmental Problems into Enterprising Solutions.

  • Mark Smith is a director of ZLC Energy and a member of Mabe Parish NDP committee

  • Julian Thompson is Digital Coordinator for Shared Assets, a not-for-profit company with the aim of developing and promoting new models of common good land use. He is leading on the development of Land Explorer a mapping app for identifying suitable sites community projects and community-based development

  • Karen la Borde is a member of Breage Parish NDP committee, a Green Party candidate and has worked for many years promoting environmental policies.

  • Dave Watkins is the lead officer for flood and coastal environment at Cornwall Council

  • Paul Martin is the Executive Director of Community Power Cornwall and has a wealth of experience supporting many co-operatives, social enterprises, traditional charities and mainstream business. Paul has helped communities to own, operate and benefit from land, buildings, food enterprises, financial services, low carbon technologies and renewable energy technologies.

So where do we go from here?

The truth is, there’s no simple answer. But we know that through the ongoing efforts of the numerous people working tirelessly with collaboration and conversation to make a difference, change is coming. We need to speed this change and to do that we need to work together. Please share your thoughts and ideas in the forum and website comments. If you feel there are other pages needed or you have something you would like us to post let us know in the feedback by clicking the link at the top of this page.

Our aim is that this will be a community forum for a Zero Carbon Cornwall.