Nottingham Friends of the Earth > Archives > 2013-2018
See things differently
As at March 2018, Nottinghamshire Pension Fund (Notts PF) invests over £5bn on behalf of more than 136,000 members. Over £300m is in fossil fuel companies, over £200m of this in fracking companies. The biggest investments are in Shell, BP, BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto. There are also big investments in HSBC and Barclays Banks which have funded large scale coal extraction around the world.
Following a consultation, Nottingham City Council has decided not to implement a Clean Air Zone - which would aim to bring the city's air pollution levels into legal compliance as soon as possible. They claim that their current investment in cleaner buses and other vehicles will be enough to bring the city centre into compliance.
After years of complaints from local residents, the City Hospital has only just stopped burning coal. That follows a campaign backed by Nottingham Friends of the Earth. This is one of the last coal-fired boilers in the city.
In June 2017, Friends of the Earth groups around the country were asking people to write to their MPs to “call for urgent and effective action to clean up our illegally polluted air and phase out dirty diesel vehicles.”
Exploratory drilling for coal bed methane near Retford has been delayed, but not stopped. A small subsidiary of an Australian company, Dart Energy (East England) Ltd, has permission to drill in Daneshill Energy Forest, four miles north of Retford. That will mean drilling through an aquifer close to Daneshill Lakes which is a wildlife site.
Nottinghamshire's Minerals Plan is up for review. Amongst other things it includes policies for extracting hydrocarbons. In the past the county has been a major source of coal. In the future large parts of the county could be fracked for shale gas and coal bed methane.
Wind turbines supported by Nottingham Pro-Wind Alliance are now being installed at Awsworth and Woodborough. Severn Trent is erecting wind turbines at sites near Leicester, Derby and Nottingham, including a large turbine at its Newthorpe sewage treatment works near Awsworth. This was the first turbine supported by Nottm ProWA in 2010, approved by Broxtowe in 2011.
Our bee banquet was a great success. The turn-out was fantastic and from comments afterwards people found the event inspiring, and are now encouraged to do their bit for bees locally.