Portsmouth Climate Action Network

There’s so much to do on climate change awareness that it’s quite easy to start trying to do everything…and complete nothing. Thus we decided to establish some working groups to tackle different areas, always with an eye to our main aims as set out on the “About Us” page. 

As we are volunteers there has to be flexibility so the boundaries aren’t too rigid between who does what (so don’t be deterred from volunteering to help – you can still go on holiday!) but more or less we try and match horses with courses.

A brief outline of each group’s activities is detailed further down this page along with a contact email. Also please look at our Future Events page for details of what’s coming up.

We are putting together a chronological history of our work (sort of a CV!) but in the meantime you can get a flavour for our work below.

Stuff like this!

PCAN was born in November 06. Since then we’ve:

Working Groups

Education

We have two current initiatives. Firstly we are working with schools and the Education Business Partnership in Portsmouth to help with climate change awareness. Secondly we give talks to local community groups and political parties. We hope that this twin approach will help us to reach out to people of all ages and persuasions in the community.

If you can help or might be interested in a talk please contact us at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Climate Awareness Day

We held our inaugural PCAN Climate Awareness Day in April 2007. It was  great fun with films, stalls representing a range of local organisations, a chance to find out your carbon footprint and a space for children’s activities including an art competition.
We have just started planning the 2008 event and always need volunteers to help us with this gargantuan task. If you’re interested in helping or having a stall on the day please contact us at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Publicity

We aim to raise awareness of the climate change agenda and PCAN through events and publicity material. We hold film nights with linked debates, run stalls at relevant local events and held a music night featuring local bands to coincide with our Awareness Day in April 2007. We also organised a hustings of local candidates on climate change before the 2007 local council elections and have an established relationship with local radio station Express FM.

Take a look at our Future Events page for information about forthcoming events and if you have any ideas for events please contact us at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Fundraising

As our activities grow fundraising becomes increasingly important. If you would like to help in this area, have a good idea or just wish to make a donation please contact us at // This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Science

We want to communicate the science of climate change and associated themes (renewable energy for instance) in a way that our audiences can hopefully better understand.

We are happy to write articles for local publications to assist in raising awareness and have just completed one for the Southsea Directory Autumn 2007 issue.

You can contact us with queries and requests at // This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Carbon Surgery

The topics of Carbon footprints, carbon reduction and offsetting are fast heading for the “black art” awards category (maybe even witchcraft!). We want to try and keep it simple and to this end we’ve launched our first challenge.

You can contact us at // This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Lobbying

We have been actively lobbying Portsmouth City Council and others since inception. This has begun to bear fruit with an initial allocation by Portsmouth City Council of monies and resources to climate change and the creation of PSAG. However there is still much work to do in this area.

We also actively monitor government led consultations and respond where appropriate. The forthcoming Climate Change Bill is an example.

You can contact us at // This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Website

Yes it’s all done in-house and we hope that you like it. It’s a bit like laying a lawn – it looks great day one but needs constant feeding and weeding to keep up appearances.