Presentation at Newham Council’s Citizen’s Assembly on Greening the Borough

Further to an invitation from Newham Council to speak at the Citizen’s Assembly on Greening the Borough we have given a speech and interacted with the assembly members with quick fire Q & A.

The event to which we contributed was held in partnership with the Democratic Society who were supporting the council in the assembly delivery. The aim was to provide a cross-section of Newham residents with the opportunity to give their thoughts and recommendations on borough-wide greening initiatives and strategy.

The online session began with an introduction by the Democratic Society and the Council, followed by four speakers (including us) being moved into ‘breakout’ rooms. Once here, we gave a brief introduction to our work at ClimateYouChange followed by a PowerPoint presentation. We started by placing strong emphasis on why we all urgently need to address the climate crisis, to urge the assembly members to factor this into their decision-making.

We first highlighted the rapid acceleration in extreme weather events, using comparable data from different countries to build up a picture of ever-increasing climate change induced disasters, showing noticeable escalation in frequency and severity. We pointed to our own vulnerability in the UK, from past climate change induced events and how this can change. Then, we moved on to solutions, giving a brief overview of lifestyle changes and the need for honest, brave conversations, before delving into greening proposals,

We outlined several workable environmental initiatives, from tree planting strategies, including much needed food forests* and dense, Japanese tree-planting technique, Miyawaki, to measures designed to increase biodiversity and reduce plant pest populations, alongside pollinator restoration practices. We suggested increased community ownership of green spaces, and active travel corridors to community food growing spaces, plus the inclusion of physical examples of affordable and sustainable food growing mediums.

Some of the other considerations we mentioned included how to bring nature and food-growing into the more urban areas. We made suggestions looking at how the council can work with developers to maximise greening solutions for new developments, potential de-paving strategy, and considerations factoring sustainability into physical infrastructure.

*Perennial food growing spaces, which mimic natural forests, therein employing nature-inspired solutions to food growing problems