In making these industries exempt, the funding has to come from elsewhere. The Conservative government has made it clear that it will not finance renewable energy off its own back, so funding will instead be passed on to regular households. The Government proposes to withdraw support for short-term funding (the next 4-5 years) of renewable technologies like solar panels and wind turbines as they are concerned it will add £ 7 p.a. to consumers energy bills which is unacceptable. Households will see their bills increase by £5 a year for the next four years to fund this exemption, at a total cost of £20 added to household bills. What has also been revealed is that projected savings from “reforming” (closing) the renewable obligation and feed-in tariff (renewable energy support schemes) will save households a total of £17 over the same period. Clearly, this action does not fit with the Governments intention to save consumers money on their energy bills as this action actually increases consumer energy bills. Renewable energy industries benefit communities, reduce wholesale future electrical energy costs and reduce pollution, making the environment a better place for current and future generations. Money used to support these schemes will now be passed as "Levy Control Framework Exemptions" (tax breaks) to high energy busines users - who pollute the planet and cause pollution related illnesses. The European Commission has aggregated a list of industries it considers intensive users of energy. That list, includes but is not limited to industries such as the mining of hard coal and the manufacture of refined petroleum products. On the face of it, it looks as if savings made from the feed-in tariff are being handed straight to large energy users to make sure they can survive the kind of difficult business environment the government is creating for domestic solar. It’s a galling prospect, and one that flies completely against any ‘the polluter pays’ principle put across in environmental law. “Treat the earth well: it was not given to you by your parents, it was loaned to you by your children” Please sign this petition to let George Osborne know we want a clean environment for our children and not to give money used to support clean energy industries away to support polluting fossil fuel companies. More details on the link below, but please read the quote below the link from Carl Sagan - a famous astronomer who was moved to write about the last image of our planet, taken as a Voyager satelite left our galaxy : http://www.solarpowerportal.co.uk/editors_blog/fit_cut_savings_all_but_handed_to_potential_polluters_under_eii_2592 “From this distant vantage point, the Earth might not seem of particular interest. But for us, it's different. Consider again that dot. That's here, that's home, that's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there – on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam. The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds. Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves. The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand. It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known.” ― Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot:

Bees are dying. This is having great affect on our environment if action is not taken quickly the damage won't be repairable. Bees provide us with food in the form of honey, pollination and they also produce many other natural products which we benefit from.

While big energy companies make record profits, the fuel bills of ordinary Londoners are out of control. And while other major cities make the transition to clean energy -- tackling air pollution and climate change -- London is lagging behind. We don’t have to accept profiteering, poverty and pollution. Switched On London is calling for a people-powered alternative. A publicly owned company with social justice, clean energy and democracy at its core... SOCIAL JUSTICE --> We want an energy company that offers fair, affordable prices, based on a progressive pricing system. --> We want an energy company that does not cut-off access to those who can’t pay and that does not install unwanted prepayment meters. --> We want an energy company that re-invests all revenues in measures to address fuel poverty and the cost of living crisis, particularly prioritising ambitious investment in household energy efficiency measures. --> We want an energy company that treats its workers fairly, meaning paying at least a London Living Wage, good terms and conditions, secure, unionised and non-precarious work. CLEAN ENERGY --> We want ambitious public investment in new renewable energy generating capacity (we are initiating research into an appropriate specific investment target). A significant portion should be invested in renewable capacity in London. --> The GLA and London local authorities must divest their pension funds from fossil fuels, and re-invest this money to fund the new renewable capacity we need. Other public funding sources for new renewable investment to be explored include municipal bonds and borrowing. --> We want an energy company that aims to sell 100% renewable energy as soon as feasibly possible. DEMOCRACY --> We want a company fully owned by London public bodies (without any private partners) but controlled by people directly. --> To do this, we want to integrate a range of democratic mechanisms, including: 1. A board of directors made up of: 1/3rd London public officials; 1/3rd energy company employees elected democratically by the whole energy company workforce; 1/3rd ordinary London residents, elected democratically with all London residents and all non-London customers given a vote. Board membership must guarantee at least 50% representation of women. 2. Annual open assemblies in every London borough, where representatives of the company have to answer questions and take input and advice. 3. The creation of an online democratic forum where people can discuss and influence the company’s operations, including through public petitions. 4. An obligation for the board to discuss public petitions, if backed by 1% or more of London’s population. 5. An obligation for an online referendum on a proposal, if backed by 5% of London’s population. 6. 100% transparency in all operations. 7. These democratic measures apply to all London residents, regardless of citizenship/nationality status.

Mega Dairies, where over 1000 cows are held in sheds 24/7 all year, are cruel and cause serious environmental damage. It is often called 'zero-grazing' when cows are never allowed in fields. It is a disgraceful form of farming... and it is entirely unnecessary. It is motivated only by greed not a social need. In Hartland in Devon an enormous slurry lagoon has been built, without even asking for permission, in the middle of an AONB. Since then the whole area has suffered considerable environmental damage and several people blame their health problems on it. And the cows... well they are healthy when measured in terms of milk yield but just look into their eyes. It is sad to see. It is in complete contrast to cows in fields that show curiosity and a spectrum of social behaviors. Please help us stop this kind of farming. Stopping this lagoon is the first step. http://stopit.org.uk The farm in Hartland is owned by the same persion that was responsible for the Nocton that resulted in an uproar of protest and Early Day Motions in Parliment.

Many pesticides used in towns have been linked to serious illnesses like cancers and birth defects. Children are particularly vulnerable. Hundreds of towns around the world have already gone pesticide-free It’s time that Cornwall took the initiative and did the same. We need to protect our children from the harmful effects of pesticides. The French government have brought in a law to stop the use of all non-agricultural pesticides by 2020 - so it is possible. If Cornwall were to stop their use it would help protect our children and provide wider social and environmental benefits to all the citizens of this great county.

To plead to the Council to open its empty buildings to the homeless in winter. I cannot imagine sleeping rough in driving, biting winds, snow, ice and winter rain. It's inhumane. It's also inexcusable when we have so many empty buildings.

They used to have them all over London from what I understand which must have been so useful and now they seem to have almost all vanished. This is important to me as a surfer I often find myself surfing next to plastic water bottle waste which causes massive destruction to the marine life and of course uses up precious finite resources. Watching this video on the journey of a plastic spoon (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eg-E1FtjaxY) also highlighted to me the absurdity of using a one use plastic water bottle.

Butter is a product of milk. The more butter that is used will help the UK dairy farmers. Palm Oil is imported and using that oil does not help the UK balance of payments. It could also help reduce the loss of tropical rain forest.

The commitment to purchase electricity from a future Hinckley C is eye-wateringly expensive. By contrast, the cost now for continuing our support for renewable energy is a tiny fraction of that amount. Britain's national interest is being sacrificed on the altar of Chinese-invested-and-profited but UK-taxpayer-funded nuclear power. We should take the opportunity to invest in renewable energy now, while borrowing costs are low.

Southwark Council has a new policy about tree planting: that no trees are to be planted on pavements less than 2.1m wide, excluding the kerb. That is, as you'll see if you take your tape measure outside, a pretty wide pavement; most of our residential streets are narrower. Many of those streets already have trees on them. These trees are beloved parts of the neighbourhood: they freshen the environment, add beauty through the seasons, and make London feel a better place for people to live and thrive. The trouble is, Southwark's policy means that if any of these much-loved trees get damaged, vandalised or diseased, the Council is now simply cutting them down, rooting them out and paving over where they used to be, leaving behind a sadder, duller street. It's one thing to say that you won't plant new trees - though many of us would be happy to see more trees even in narrow streets - but quite another to say you won't replace old ones that were seen as a popular adornment, not a nuisance, by the people who actually lived in the area. We love these trees, and when they die, we mourn them. Refusing to replace them doesn't make the neighbourhoods more convenient: it impoverishes them, and probably decreases the value of our property as well. Southwark Council, we are asking you to do the right thing for people and for nature and change your policy so that trees that meet with misfortunes can be replaced even if they were growing in the smaller streets. We, the people who live in these streets, want the trees. Please hear us.

Scientists working for ExxonMobil had suspicions about the existence of climate change in the 1970s, and by the early 1980s they had conducted research projects, validated their theories and concluded that man-made climate change was real and would raise global temperatures by between two to three degrees. Evidence suggests that ExxonMobil continued to fund the work of climate sceptics as late as 2009, and possibly beyond, which is after the date that the Rome Statute entered into force. Rather than alert the world to these facts, Exxon Mobil used this knowledge to increase their profits, whilst also setting up and funding various organisations to deny the existence of climate change. Exxon Mobil's policy of aggressive climate change denial has caused irreversible damage to the environment. As the mandate of the International Criminal Court is to try individuals rather than corporations, we ask the ICC to charge all individuals at ExxonMobil who conspired to cover up the existence of climate change with crimes against humanity. We believe that ExxonMobil's actions constitute an inhumane act which has intentionally caused great suffering. We want the ICC to take this action both in order to hold ExxonMobil to account for their actions, and to prevent other corporations from taking similar actions in the future. It needs to be established that large scale destruction or pollution of the environment, whether intentional or through negligence, will constitute a crime against humanity, and that individuals responsible for such crimes will be pursued by the ICC.

We depend on the oceans for our survival. Oceans create oxygen. 90% of our fish stocks have disappeared through overfishing. If we lose the fish, we lose whales. If we lost whales, we lost plankton. If we lost plankton, we lose oxygen. Everything is connected. Tesco uses trawler nets to catch its fish, which kill other sea creatures like turtles and sharks unnecessarily.