Following storm damage in 2014, Network Rail are currently working on a resilience programme to upgrade the London to Penzance railway between Exeter and Newton Abbot. In 2018 they hosted public forums and presented plans to build a new line 30 -40 metres out to sea at Holcombe - a scheme which would have annihilated the beach. In November last year they then announced that revised plans were now being considered. Subsequent Freedom of Information requests for details have been denied, "in the public interest". In February 2019, Network Rail advised that their current proposal between Parson's Tunnel and Teignmouth is, "to deliver a new railway alignment involving a new sea wall beyond the footprint of the existing." Holcombe Beach, with it's open sea aspect framed by the towering red Devon cliffs, is possibly the most visually outstanding part of any journey on the iconic train route, and has been a cherished destination for both local's and visitors for many generations. Whilst it is agreed that the railway must be maintained and updated, we enjoin that this must not be to the detriment of a special and unique location. Network Rail must use their best endeavours to ensure that any development they undertake specifically maintains or enhances the visual and environmental merits of Holcombe Beach. Appropriate independent cost benefit analysis should be included in order that the opportunity cost of particular actions can be evaluated.

By 2050 our oceans will contain more plastic than fish. We can create a change and our daily actions are a vital part of reducing this devastating plastic pollution. However, for many of us students, this is a continual battle. Due to a lack of facilities on campus we are sometimes faced with no alternatives but to use single-use plastics. We believe that businesses, charities and large organisations have a larger impact than one individual. These organisations should be taking this responsibility on board too and prioritising it. We want our SU to listen to this strong student voice, deliver the change we want and phase out all single use plastic by 2020.

Investing in carbon-intensive industries contributes to global warming and is contradictory to Wandsworth Council’s published commitment to “Reducing greenhouse gas emissions to slow down climate change and reduce reliance on fossil fuels. Local governments have a moral duty and legal obligation to act for the public good to protect the global and local environment. Continuing to invest in fossil fuel industries is a blatant disregard of these duties. As it currently stands, the London Borough of Wandsworth pension fund has has £137,628,569 invested, directly and indirectly, in fossil fuel industries. Proven fossil fuel reserves (2,795 gigatons of CO2) exceed the total carbon budget we are able to burn (565 gigatons) by a factor of five. As these ‘proven’ reserves have been factored into the share price of the fossil fuel companies already, this represents a serious overvaluing of these companies’ share prices. The unusable fossil fuel reserves run a high risk of becoming a ‘stranded’ or worthless asset and a poor investment. The size of this ‘carbon bubble’ has been estimated at $4 trillion. By investing public money in assets that cannot be realised in the future due to stringent policy and legal restrictions; the current approach is financially irresponsible and likely to breach fiduciary duties. There are ethical, environmental and economic imperatives for the council to divest from fossil fuels immediately and re-invest in sustainable funds.

Climate change is happening. We can choose to take urgent action now, to protect our children’s future. To keep global warming below 1.5°C we must operate within a global carbon budget. Everyone must contribute. North Somerset Council must contribute by declaring a climate emergency and committing to be carbon neutral by 2030. North Somerset Green, Liberal Democrat, Labour and Independent Councillors have submitted a motion calling on North Somerset Council to declare a ‘Climate Emergency’ and pledge to make North Somerset carbon neutral by 2030. A decision will be made by your councillors at the full council meeting, 6pm on the 19th February. Sign this petition now, email your councillor asking them to support it, and join us outside the town hall from 5:30pm on 19th Feb to show our support. Find your councillor at: http://www.n-somerset.gov.uk/my-council/councillors/councillor/find-your-councillors/find-my-local-councillors/ The motion says: This council recognises: 1. The challenge and threat of climate change to residents and global community. 2. That to keep global warming below 1.5°C we must operate within a global carbon budget. In order to reduce the chance of runaway Global Warming and limit the effects of Climate Breakdown, we need to reduce our CO2eq (carbon equivalent) emissions from their current average of 6.5 tonnes per person per year to less than 2 tonnes as soon as possible. 3. Individuals cannot be expected to make this reduction on their own. Society needs to change its laws, taxation and infrastructure, to make low carbon living easier. 4. North Somerset Council has already shown foresight and leadership when it comes to addressing the issue of climate change, having reduced CO2 emissions by 28.5% between 2005 - 2015 and setting a target to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the equivalent of 5.8 tonnes per person, to 2.9 tonnes per person by 2035. (1) 5. Unfortunately, current plans and actions are not enough. The world is on track to overshoot the Paris Agreement's 1.5°C limit before 2050 (2). The IPCC’s Special Report on Global Warming (3) describes the enormous harm that a 2°C rise is likely to cause compared to a 1.5°C rise, and told us that limiting Global Warming to 1.5°C may still be possible with ambitious action from national and sub-national authorities, civil society, the private sector and local communities. 6. Councils around the UK and the world are responding by declaring a ‘Climate Emergency’ and committing resources to address this emergency. (4) This council will: 1. Declare that it recognises a ‘Climate Emergency’. 2. Take active steps to make North Somerset carbon neutral by 2030, taking into account both production and consumption emissions (5) . 3. Call on Westminster to provide the powers and resources to make the 2030 target possible. 4. Set up a cross-party Working Group to bring forward proposals and work with partners across the region to deliver this new goal through all relevant strategies and plans. 5. Report to Full Council every six months with the actions the Council will take to address this emergency. 1 https://www.n-somerset.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Climate-Local-Commitmen t-refresh-2018.pdf 2 https://unfccc.int/process-and-meetings/the-paris-agreement/the-paris-agreement 3 https://www.ipcc.ch/2018/10/08/summary-for-policymakers-of-ipcc-special-report-on-global-warming-of-1-5c-approved-by-governments 4 https://www.campaigncc.org/councils_climate_emergency 5 https://www.carbontrust.com/resources/faqs/services/scope-3-indirect-carbon-emissions/

The naturalist Sir David Attenborough has said climate change is humanity's greatest threat in thousands of years and it could lead to the collapse of civilisations and the extinction of "much of the natural world". "We have 12 years to limit climate change catastrophe", warns the United Nations. "Urgent changes are needed to cut risk of extreme heat, drought, floods and poverty", says the International Panel on Climate Change. Our Government is ignoring these warnings and is not on target to meet the environmental commitments it made in Paris in 2015. Sheffield City Council should be a trailblazing Council like Bristol, Nottingham, Frome, the Forest of Dean, Scarborough, the London Assembly and the growing number of councils that are declaring an emergency and planning to quickly reduce their emissions. Declaring a Climate Emergency means acting as if it is an emergency by taking measures to reduce carbon emissions from both production and consumption as quickly as possible. We still have a chance to avert the worst of the scientific predictions currently being made but we must act now. Sheffield City Council is meeting on Wednesday 6th February and should declare a Climate Emergency before it is too late. It is vital the motion they pass sets a firm commitment to carbon neutrality by 2030. Please sign this petition, and contact your local councillor to ask them to support the motion for a zero carbon city by 2030.

Opencast coal extraction is a reckless and dirty industry that is fuelling climate change while hurting communities in the UK and abroad to fuel UK power stations. Over the next few weeks, the UK government faces a choice: it can let this dirty industry get bigger, or it can end opencast coal extraction for good, honouring it’s promise of a 2025 coal phase-out to the British people, saving communities and protecting the climate. Right now, the government is considering whether to allow two opencast coal mines in the North of England 1. Bradley in Pont Valley, which is already destroying the countryside, and 2. Druridge Bay, which threatens a pristine stretch of coastline. Both mines are being pursued by Banks Group; the only company in the UK pushing for the expansion of coal extraction. They have already extended their operation at Shotton, Northumberland and are undertaking a scoping inquiry into a new one at Dewley Hill, near Throckley, Newcastle. Together these four projects would extract over 6.5 million tonnes of coal and release around 13 million tonnes of Co2 . There’s no time to lose - at the Bradley mine in Pont Valley, each day that goes by means more coal being burned and more countryside being lost. The government is due to make a decision on both Bradley and Druridge Bay in the next few weeks. Banks Groups lawyers and lobbyists are putting forward their arguments in favour of their damaging projects. Let’s make sure we get heard too. Sign our petition to make sure that the government makes the right decision and ends opencast coal mining for good.

There has been NO consultation on this plan, which is significantly different from the original Plan. There are many major changes, including most of the housing sites being proposed now. • The “exceptional circumstances” that allow for development on the Green Belt have not been satisfactorily established. The harm caused by removing the Grenoble Road site from the Green Belt is greater than any benefits obtained. • The proposed development will have a major impact on the nature of the local environment and people’s enjoyment of it. • The proposed development will reduce access to the countryside as an amenity for many residents, of Oxford, Blackbird Leys and Greater Leys - paths, dog walking routes, etc. • The figures used to estimate the number of houses needed are questionable and out of date. • The proposed estate of 3,000 homes would inevitably increase noise, air and light pollution. • The proposed density of 70 dwellings/hectare is out of keeping with the area and inappropriate in a semi-rural location. It is higher than most new developments except in city centres. • The Grade I listed Nuneham Courtenay Park has views over much of the surrounding countryside and views from the Park will be very adversely affected by a large housing estate south of Grenoble Road. • There are inadequate plans to improve the infrastructure (roads, public transport, shops, doctors and other amenities) to support this development. • The proposed Park & Ride will attract more traffic up the A4074 through Nuneham Courtenay—especially if the Redbridge P&R is closed as has been proposed elsewhere. • The proposed Cowley branch line passenger rail service would be too far from the Grenoble Road site to be useful. Therefore, those working in Oxford or commuting from further away would add traffic to already congested roads. • The Plan is not coordinated with other plans like the expressway.

CoGen wants to build an incinerator in Cardiff which would burn 150,000 tonnes of waste a year. Such a plant undermines recycling and composting, worsens climate change, emits toxic gases harmful to health. It would import waste from outside Wales contrary to the Proximity Principle of minimising transport-miles. This type of plant is known for not working properly, breaking down and many have been closed. They also produce potentially lethal explosive gases endangering the surrounding location. This plant is not going to be near any potential heat users the efficiency of the plant is poor with some 60-70% of the heat it would generate being wasted. This flies in the face of Welsh Government policy for combined heat and power. As is also the case with the Splott incinerator. The so called guardians of our environment the NRW (Natural Resources Wales) have absolutely no expertise in these incinerators and therefore impossible to police. Indeed they are utterly failing in policing the existing Splott one. The waste they want to burn can easily be recycled without polluting anything. Burning mixed waste is highly dangerous in that it releases lethal toxins to all life forms, such as PM2.5, PM10, C02 carbon dioxide, which further adds to the already poor environment of south wales, therefore flying in the face of the global environmental accords such as Paris and Poland. In operation this incinerator fumes are extremely dangerous due to the fact that the filter system has to be turned off for up to 4 hours during startup that's when the very high harmful pollutants are emitted. NRW does not even require measurements of it! These fumes do not disperse harmlessly, similar to the Splott one but circulate around the immediate urban area of Cardiff and have been known to be carried by wind over 100 miles. The toxins get released when burnt and rise into the air, and what goes up must come down, these poisons land in the earth and in the air you breath and the water that is around. The very life of everything on the planet is contaminated by it. Under an easterly wind, the emission plumes get trapped in the Cardiff environment exactly as the current Splott incinerator does today. NRW to please its political masters in the assembly assume a measurement of strong winds from the west and are measured in Rhoose airport not in Splott or St.Mellons or the Cardiff Bay. CoGen’s plant would emit huge quantities of NOx and NO2 (toxic gas) which are uncontrolled by NRW yet are proven to be the most dangerous to health.  NRW and the Health authorities have ignored the Senedd report on incineration that stressed dangers from nano-particles such as PM2.5 which are so small as to penetrate through the lungs into body organs, including even the brain and an unborn child. Past studies of urban areas around an incinerator of twenty miles have shown significant increases in child stillbirths and malformation, asthma, brain disease such as dementia, and heart disease. These big business such as Co-gen and Viridor are very happy to put their profits before your health. CoGen is being pushed forward by Dr Liam Fox MP in England through the Department of Trade and Industry with no interest in what you want or worse still what's important for the environment. This is not about efficient methods of recycling waste it is all about speculative profit making by big business on the backs of the tax payers. Cardiff’s Viridor incinerator came because of Welsh government encouragement and subsidy, though contrary to policy for local, efficient CHP plants. Cardiff officers encouraged the plant too – a big mistake.  No way should we have another mega-incinerator!  There is no calorific value in burning metal, glass, food or cardboard. They really only want the plastic which is a complex oil based product which release deadly poisons. Cardiff is now the Incinerator happy hunting ground and unless you act and stop it more will come.

We believe the Sheffield and wider public have a right to know the truth behind the actions of our council, their PFI contractor Amey & South Yorkshire Police in dealing with lawful, peaceful protest.

Hunting wild animals with dogs is a cruel blood sport and has no place in a civilized society. Terrified animals are chased for miles then ripped apart by a pack of dogs, this is regularly happening in Cheshire. Cheshire Constabulary has never successfully prosecuted anyone for illegal hunting. Cheshire Constabulary has passed a file to the Crown Prosecution Service only once in the last three years.

By 2050 there will be more plastic than fish in our seas. But Scottish Premiership football clubs still give out thousands of single use plastic items every single matchday. Plastic cups, straws, stirrers, bags, they all end up clogging up our oceans and filling landfills. Football supporters shouldn't be forced to contribute to plastic pollution, just because they want a drink or some food at a match.

By 2050 there will be more plastic than fish in our seas. But Premier League football clubs still give our hundreds of thousands of single use plastic items every single matchday. Plastic cups, straws, stirrers, bags, they all end up clogging up our oceans and filling landfills. Football supporters shouldn't be forced to contribute to plastic pollution, just because they want a drink or some food at a match.