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It will make a direct link between climate change and the design of buildings and streets around us. Because you can't create sustainable cities without getting the design right.

The global environment crisis is, in large part, a planning and design crisis. That is why CABE is organising the festival with Birmingham CityCouncil. And this festival will explore how we plan, design and use our
cities.

The festival will show how a successful response to climate change willtransform the quality of life for people working and living in the city.Most commentators suggest that tackling global warming must involve a huge
amount of self-denial: an end to all the things that we enjoy.

We take a different view. Climate action is about reinvention - not self-denial. Reinvention and redesign of the way our cities work. Of course this will involve some trade-offs. But they are worth making because the
rewards are so great - healthier, fairer, and more prosperous places.

So the climate change festival will help people to see their city through new eyes. It will prompt us to think about a low carbon city and dare to dream what it might be like. Your city could be transformed over the next ten years into a beautiful, competitive, world class environment.

The festival organisers promise something very different to other campaigns about sustainability. No guilt and no finger wagging. This will be collective, dramatic, sociable and fun. (A festival about climate change). Events throughout the week will range from community-based projects to a hothouse event for professionals working in the built environment sector, and a green day for schools. The festival will also include the launch on World Environment Day of Birmingham's first ever climate change strategy and action plan.

And what does a sustainable city really feel like? Well, it's got beautiful public spaces which make walking and cycling safe and obvious choices. Well designed homes, offices and libraries. More trees. Cleaner air. Suburbs well integrated with the city centre. And more independence - local networks, local services, local markets. A less stressful, more efficient place to live and work.

By contrast, the costs if we fail to tackle climate change are high - for any city. It means a noisier and more polluted environment. It means growing social inequity, with people on low incomes least able to afford flood insurance and the rising costs of energy. High carbon cities in the future will be less competitive in an age of personal carbon allowances. They will fail to capitalise on new sustainable business opportunities, and most firms will be reluctant to relocate there.

This is a fate which Birmingham will avoid. The city pioneered the carbon-based industrial revolution, and the city now intends to apply the same spirit and skill to becoming sustainable. During the festival, it will launch an ambitious plan to drastically reduce carbon emissions over the next 18 years. Good urban design is crucial to meeting that reduction - 60% by 2026.

People and businesses across Birmingham are invited to take part:
contact lin.glover@birmingham.gov.uk

The aim is to make the festival an annual event, involving at least eight cities in 2009, and going international in 2010.

Commonwealth Foundation - Climate Change Briefings

Submitted by auto transfer on 10 April 2008 - 3:28pm

Commonwealth Foundation - Climate Change Briefings for Action / Food Security

http://www.commonwealthfoundation.com/sustainabledev/climatechange/briefingsfor%20action/

Briefings for Action

The Commonwealth Foundation is organising a series of climate change briefings for governments, policy-makers, opinion formers and others who are in a position to influence the Commonwealth response to climate change. This initiative is in response to the urgent need for action, as well as to carry forward the momentum from the 2007 Commonwealth Peoples Forum (CPF) and Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM).

The aim is to raise awareness about critical climate change issues facing the Commonwealth and how they can be effectively addressed. This initiative will also inform, guide and galvanise governments in adopting appropriate policies.

The Commonwealth is at a critical juncture in its history, as climate change threatens the very existence of a number of member states, and endangers social and economic development for all. Climate change has become much more than an environmental issue – it is an issue that can jeopardise the future security of the Commonwealth and the well-being of every citizen.

Commonwealth Heads of Government, during their meeting in Uganda in November 2007, strengthened their resolve to tackle climate change, at both the national and pan-Commonwealth level. They issued the Lake Victoria Commonwealth Climate Change Action Plan, in which they expressed their grave concern about “the threat that climate change represents to human security and economic well-being.” Furthermore, they called on “the family of Commonwealth organisations to play a full part in promoting a better understanding of climate change and its impacts, and in addressing adaptation and mitigation challenges.”

Heeding this call, the Commonwealth Foundation is organising a series of briefings for governments, policy-makers, opinion formers and others who are in a position to influence the Commonwealth response to climate change. The Foundation is hosting the briefings in partnership with the Commonwealth Secretariat, several Commonwealth associations, and a range of other governmental and non-governmental organisations.

Climate change was a priority issue at the 2007 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) following the strong call for action made by civil society at the 2005 CHOGM in Malta. At the 2007 Commonwealth People's Forum (CPF), civil society participants from around the Commonwealth produced the Kampala Civil Society Statement for the CHOGM, in which they stressed that “failure to address climate change will have far-reaching ramifications.”

Heads of Government noted that climate change is a direct threat to the very survival of some Commonwealth countries, particularly small island states as well as low-lying coastal regions. They observed that climate change can undermine efforts to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), and recognised that “the cost of inaction on mitigation and adaptation is far greater than the cost of early action.”

The Foundation's initiative, to host a set of climate change briefings, is in response to this urgent need for action, as well as to carry forward the momentum from the 2007 CPF and CHOGM. The aim is to raise awareness about