News

Climate Action Plan

Will a new mayor tackle climate change?

In May 2024, people in Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire will be able to vote for an "East Midlands Combined Authority" mayor for the first time.

Friends of the Earth will be working with other environmental organisations to ask all candidates to sign a pledge to tackle the climate and ecological emergencies. Read More >

Wood burning in Greater Nottingham

Call to stop wood burning (Nov 2023)

Clean Air Nottingham is calling for action to stop pollution from wood burning. A new report, TIME TO LOG OFF, claims that a wood burning stove can emit 150 times more fine particles (PM2.5) than a heavy goods vehicle. This is contributing to over 200 deaths a year in Greater Nottingham from PM2.5. The group wants the government to:

  • ban use of wood burning stoves;
  • pass the Clean Air (Human Rights) Bill;
  • give local authorities more power and resources to reduce air pollution. Read More >
United for Warm Homes

Demand Warm Homes (Sep 2023)

Please back Climate Action Notts' campaign for warm homes.

Click here to ask Notts MPs to take action

Warm This Winter

Demand action to tackle fuel poverty (Sep 2022)

Please back the Warm This Winter campaign which demands:

  • Emergency support now
  • Help to upgrade homes
  • Cheap renewable energy
  • Freedom from volatile oil and gas
COP26 launch

COP26 March & Rally (Nov 2021)

Join us in Nottingham as we come together to demand climate justice on November 6 as part of a global day of action, with demonstrations in Glasgow, other UK towns and cities, and around the world:

  • 1pm Assemble at the Forest
  • 2pm March to city centre
  • 3pm Rally in Market Square

Stronger policy needed on fracking in Notts (Oct 2020)

No Fracking Way

Local campaign groups have told a planning inspector that stronger controls are needed to protect Nottinghamshire from fracking. The County Council had refused to include a separate policy on fracking in its Minerals Plan. Issues raised by representatives from Frack Free Misson and Teversal, Skegby and Stanton Hill Neighbourhood Forum at a hearing on 28 October included:

  • risk assessments in former coal mining areas
  • protecting communities from large gasfield development
  • contraints on all hydraulic fracturing (as defined in North Yorkshire Minerals Plan), not just extensive fracking as defined in the Infrastructure Act
  • saying plans "must" be in line with net zero carbon emissions by 2050

These proposals were opposed by the County Council and industry representatives. For more details see Drill or Drop.

RoS incinerator diagram

Object to RoS incinerator (Oct 2020)

At long last the coal-fired power station at Ratcliffe on Soar will have to shut down by 2025. The bad news is that operator Uniper wants to replace it with a large waste incinerator. You can still object until the County decides whether to give planning permission. See our objection >

Carbon Neutral 2028

Carbon Neutral Nottingham (Mar 2020)

In January 2020, the City Council launched a consultation on its Action Plan for Nottingham to be a carbon neutral city by 2028. A response from Nottingham Friends of the Earth criticised the lack of urgency, and lack of clear priorities. But we did support most of the proposed action points, including:

  • reduce the need to travel;
  • eliminate fuel poverty;
  • reduce waste and increase recycling;
  • "make do and mend";
  • protect people from extreme weather events. Read More >
Tree planting

National Tree Week (Nov 2019)

Friends of the Earth has launched a campaign to double tree cover in the UK by 2045. For National Tree Week they provided 500 saplings for planting at a city centre rest garden managed by the Women's Institute. Other local tree-planting initiatives included:

  • The WI launched a People's Forest with Robin Hood;
  • City Parks supported a number of tree planting initiatives;
  • a Young People's Forest near Heanor is being supported by the Woodland Trust. Read More >
Sailing into climate oblivion

Questions at Notts Pension Fund 2019 AGM

Following questions asked at Notts Pension Fund AGMs in 2015 and 2018, Extinction Rebellion Nottingham organised a demonstration at the AGM in October 2019, singing "Divest Now ... there's no time to waste", with Captain Fossil sailing into climate oblivion throwing out dud £20 notes. As questions were read out in the AGM, people looked down with T shirts saying Climate Emergency - Divest Now. Read More >

No Fracking Way

Notts Minerals Plan - why no policy on fracking? (Sep 2019)

Notts County Council is consulting again on their Minerals Plan. Most of the area around Sherwood Forest has been licensed for fracking. The area is already known as the earthquake capital of the UK due to former mining. Sherwood sandstone contains aquifers important for drinking water and agriculture. But the Plan has no specific policy to protect us from fracking. Help put a stop to this fossil fuel madness. Have your say >

Is your pension fossil free?

Divest!Invest! Notts Pension Fund (Aug 2019)

Extinction Rebellion Nottingham has produced a Briefing to explain why Nottinghamshire Pension Fund should get its money out of fossil fuels.

People are being asked to write to their local councillors. Demands include:

  • Divestment from all fossil fuel-related assets over the next 3 years;
  • Invest in renewable energy, environmental sustainability and local alternatives. Read More >
HS2 routemap

HS2 - wrong priorities, damage to wildlife sites, not value for money (Aug 2019)

Nottingham Friends of the Earth has produced a Briefing on HS2 which is highly critical:

  • it will benefit business travellers, not commuters;
  • fast trains serve less places;
  • it will damage hundreds of wildlife sites;
  • the government has no overall transport strategy and climate change is not a priority;
  • traffic reduction should be a bigger priority and more spent on cycling, walking and buses or trams;
  • regional priorities like Midland Mainline electrification should be prioritised over London-centric schemes like HS2. Read More >
Secret Killer report

Why no City plan for PM2.5? (Jul 2019)

Newly formed campaign group Clean Air Nottingham says the City Council is not doing enough to tackle the problem of small particles. Their report, Nottingham's Secret Killer, shows levels of PM2.5 above World Health Organisation guidelines in many parts of the city, including near the Queen's Medical Centre. Clean Air Nottingham is calling for:

  • citywide monitoring of PM2.5;
  • analysis of sources of Nottingham's PM2.5;
  • a plan showing how PM2.5 levels can be lowered;
  • a medical investigation of effects of PM2.5 on hospital admissions. Read More >
Priorities for plastic pollution

Tyre wear the biggest cause of microplastic pollution (Nov 2018)

A new report from Friends of the Earth says that tyre wear is probably the main cause of microplastic pollution in the marine environment. Washing clothes also makes a large contribution. For larger plastic items, wet wipes and bottles are a big problem.

The report identifies ten priorities where households can make the most difference. (The top right in this diagram shows the most significant causes of plastic pollution to the right, and where households can have the most effect to the top.) Read More >

Financial risks of climate change

Notts Pension Fund not protected from climate change (Nov 2018)

A new report from Friends of the Earth reveals that many local authority pension funds, including Notts, are not doing enough to reduce the financial risks of climate change. Notts is taking almost no action to protect members' funds.

The report looked at 19 large local authority funds. Notts came in the bottom category of 'laggard'. The report says: "Their failure to act is a breach of their fiduciary duty." Read More >

BLF logo

Pollution around the QMC is unsafe (Oct 2018)

A new report from the British Lung Foundation says that pollution levels around the QMC are unsafe. And both the City Council and Highways England should be doing more. Fine particulates (PM2.5) are linked to 6.4% of adult deaths in the city. "Transport remains an important contributor to poor air quality, and, in 2020, petrol and diesel cars will still be one of the main contributors to poor air quality." So more needs to be done to curb traffic on the trunk roads around the QMC. Read More >

Don't fast track fracking

County supports local accountability on fracking (Sep/Oct 2018)

Following a widespread local and national campaign, Notts County Council has voted to oppose government attempts to take planning decisions away from local councils. Frack Free Notts demonstrated outside the full Council meeting on 20 September.

Make Notts fossil free

Why won't Notts kick the fossil fuel habit? (Oct 2018)

Members of Notts Pension Fund have started to ask questions about its investments in fossil fuel companies. At the Fund's Annual Meeting in October 2018, members raised more issues about both the ethics and financial risks associated with fossil fuel investments: Read More >

Amy & Ella at House of Commons

Kids Against Plastic (Dec 2017)

Two Arnold schoolgirls, Amy and Ella Meek, started the Kids Against Plastic campaign. Local MP Vernon Coaker took them to the House of Commons to meet Environmental Audit Committee Chair Mary Creagh. See their website >

Big Plug - electrify MML

Campaign to electrify Midland Mainline (Oct 2017)

On 7 October, campaigners from Leicester Friends of the Earth brought their 'Big Plug' campaign to Nottingham Station. This follows a government decision to cancel electrification North of Kettering, and introduce 'bi-mode' trains which will run on diesel for most of the journey from London. We say "We should be scrapping diesel trains not building new ones. Diesel trains are heavier, so less efficient and take longer to stop and start. All mainline trains should be moving to electric. That will save money, reduce climate emissions and reduce air pollution." People were asked to write to their MPs to tell Transport Secretary Chris Grayling to reverse the decision to cancel electrification." Read More >

City Hospital coal-fired boiler chimney

City Hospital to shut down coal-fired boiler at last (Aug 2017)

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. Read More >