Portsmouth Climate Action Network

Eventually I made it to the conference with a few minutes to spare to gather my thoughts and find a seat. There were some 30 people attending the conference with at least one representative from each Hampshire based NGO. Hampshire County Council also had a representative attending.

First to speak was a member of the Winchester Action on Climate Change group who made one of the most inspirational talks i have ever heard. He certainly has the personality and knowledge to carry the message forward. He explained how WinACC is leading the way to reduce Winchesters carbon footprint by a third in 99 months.

Next to speak were the Allotments Association at Petersfield and FOE New Forest group who were concerned about flooding at Lymington and larger ferries that would damage the local environment.

Maddy then followed up and explained Peak Oil and how the Permaculture magazine with over 100,000 readers was published as sustainably as possible. After a coffee break Chris did his talk about PCAN, which was quite impressive and showed how effective PCAN has been since it started in 2006. Terena then explained the Greening Campaign which is growing with new groups very quickly.

Next came Greening Clanfield which is a young group and is looking for advice and a direction to go in. There were certainly many people willing to help!

Just before lunch we had a tour of the Sustainabilty Centre, the most interest focused on the eco toilet and the Yurt. The eco toilet was surprisingly high tech looking, with toilet paper and a proper plastic seat. The Yurt had a stove inside and was probably better constructed than a mobile Mongol Yurt.

After lunch The Buriton Local Food Group explained how they were getting the local community to purchase local farm produce. They were followed by the Andover Christian Ecology group which is another young group and joins the existing nationwide network of Christian groups.

The next conference member talked about Test Valley FOE and SEFS (South East Forum for Sustainability) . SEFS is a strategic organisation with many NGOs and other organisations being members.

I decided to leave before the final talks and big discussion and decided to take the flatter easier route back home. But the day was very interesting and it is amazing just how many groups and organisations there are out there apart from the big ones such as FOE and Greenpeace.

The event was sponsored by The Co-operative and The Wildlife Trusts.