Somers Town Community Association joined NCVO’s Fuelling Positive Change campaign to take charity money out of fossil fuels.

By joining the campaign, we have agreed not to invest in fossil fuels.

This wasn’t a straightforward decision, but after taking advice and looking at the issue from all sides, we’re confident it’s in the best interests of our charity.

Fossil fuels are already harming communities – from soaring energy costs to the climate crisis – and it’s only going to get worse. Investing in fossil fuels won’t help us to achieve our Strategic Aims and our Mission

Many charities have already committed to divesting from fossil fuels. By rejecting investment opportunities in the fossil fuel industry, charities big and small help to drive the change to a more sustainable world.

Together we can lead the way. Together we can fuel positive change.

The Board of Somers Town Community Association

17 January 2022 – Today more than 70 leading businesses and financial institutions have called for a legally binding UN treaty on plastic pollution in a pre-UNEA statement. 

The statement is an indictment on the severity of our current plastic crisis, which merits immediate and concerted global efforts that tackle the problem at its root and throughout its lifecycle, in line with the Foundation’s vision for a circular economy for plastics. In the statement, businesses have called for a treaty that:

• Includes both upstream and downstream policies, aiming to: keep plastics in the economy and out of the environment, reduce virgin plastic production and use, and decouple plastic production from the consumption of fossil resources 

• Sets a clear direction to align governments, businesses and civil society behind a common understanding of the causes of plastic pollution and a shared approach to address them. For companies and investors, this creates a level playing field and prevents a patchwork of disconnected solutions, while setting the right enabling conditions to make a circular economy work in practice and at scale 

• Provides a robust governance structure to ensure countries’ participation and compliance, with common definitions as well as harmonised standards applicable to all. This facilitates investments to scale innovations, infrastructures, and skills in the countries and industries most in need of international support

Pressure has been mounting on the international community for a legally binding treaty: More than 2 million people around the world have signed a WWF petition, and more than ¾ of UN member states have also backed those calls. 

This is the first time industry leaders have advocated for such a robust policy on plastic pollution. The new statement includes explicit recognition of the need to reduce virgin plastic production and use, and comes just months before UNEA 5.2 where member states will have a crucial opportunity to negotiate a treaty. It is strongly aligned with a resolution to establish a negotiation mandate for a new treaty that has been tabled for the upcoming UNEA by a group of 42 countries, led by Rwanda and Peru. However, there are concerns that other states may support a less ambitious mandate. Discussions around the scope and ambition of the proposed treaty are currently ongoing and will be critical to determining whether the treaty will be able to deliver on the goal of eliminating plastic pollution. 

The statement follows the publication of a report in 2020 by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and the Boston Consulting Group (BCG), setting out the business case for a treaty. That report focused on how a treaty should stop the plastic pollution problem before its starts, set global standards, and support all countries and industries to play their part.

“

Plastic pollution doesn't stop at borders, it is a global problem that requires businesses and governments to work together on global solutions. Today marks the first time so many leading businesses have come together and called for a legally-binding, robust treaty; one that sets common rules and regulations, establishes a level playing field and creates the conditions needed to deliver coordinated global solutions. This statement sends a powerful signal to policymakers that they now have an unprecedented opportunity to turn the tide on plastic pollution.

- Andrew Morlet, CEO, Ellen MacArthur Foundation

“

We need a transformation in ambition and action in how we make, use and reuse plastic. It is no longer a question of whether we need a treaty on plastic pollution, it’s more about what this treaty must look like in order to tackle today’s still rampant plastic pollution crisis. These companies are asking governments to agree on a legally-binding set of global regulations and standards, including explicit recognition of the need to reduce virgin plastic production and use. Let us now seize the momentum that we are seeing across business, governments and civil society to deliver a strong and ambitious treaty at UNEA.

- Marco Lambertini, International Director General, WWF

We all need to work together to reduce plastic pollution and through our work on the Future Neighbourhood 2030 project and with the support of the funding awarded from the Lottery Climate Action Fund we will work with our partners to raise awareness and make local change.

The Leader of London Councils and Mayor of London convene London Climate Summit to build powerful coalition tackling the climate crisis ahead of COP26

As part of the summit the Mayor’s £7.5m Future Neighbourhoods 2030 programme was launched, which aims to tackle some of London’s defining environmental challenges - including the climate emergency and air quality - whilst creating jobs, developing skills and supporting a just transition to a low carbon circular economy. 

Sadiq announced that Somers Town in the London Borough of Camden and Notting Dale in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea have today received £1.42m each, which will be match-funded by each borough. A further £4.5m will be made available to support further projects across these two neighbourhoods in the coming years.

We are so excited by this announcement, which comes at the end of a very long and competitive application process and we look forward to working with the Somers Town Neighbourhood Forum, Camden Council our partners and most of all the community on this amazing opportunity

Mrs Sarah Elie MBE

Executive Director Somers Town Community Association and Executive Lead for The St Pancras and Somers Town Living Centre

Somers Town Community Association and the St Pancras and Somers Town Living Centre will be hosting a series of events/workshops/panel discussions and film from the 1st of November to the 11th November at The St Pancras and Somers Town Living Centre, Make Space and STCA as we begin to ask our selves questions and look for answers as to how we can individually and collectively work to reduce our carbon foot print.

for more information about our programme of events contact jodie@somerstown.org.uk or sarah@somerstown.org.uk

Good afternoon

throughout this pandemic we’ve tried to keep people abreast of the last information as soon as we get it.

And since I spoke to you last Monday, we’ve seen further clusters of the B.1.617.2, the variant first observed in India, we’ve seen it especially in Bolton, Blackburn with Darwen and some other parts of the country.

At this stage there are some important unknowns. We believe this variant is more transmissible than the previous one, in other words it passes more easily from person to person, but we don’t know by how much.

I am told that if it’s only marginally more transmissible, we can continue more or less as planned, but if the virus is significantly more transmissible, we are likely to face some hard choices.

We are going to be learning a lot more in the coming days and weeks about that.

The good news is that so far we have no evidence to suggest our vaccines will be less effective in protecting people against severe illness and hospitalisation.

So that means we are in a different position from the last time we face a new variant before Christmas

because of the scale of our vaccine roll-out, which PHE estimates has already saved almost 12,000 lives and prevented over 33,000 people from being hospitalised.

So I believe we should trust in our vaccines to protect the public whilst monitoring the situation very closely.

Because the race between our vaccination programme and the virus may be about to become a great deal tighter and it’s more important than ever therefore that people get the additional protection of a second dose.

So following advice from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation, we will accelerate remaining second doses to the over 50s and those clinically vulnerable right across the country so they are just eight weeks after the first dose and if you are in this group the NHS will be in touch with you.

We will also prioritise first doses for anyone eligible who has not yet come forwards, including the over 40s and I urge anyone in those groups to come forwards as soon as you can.

At this stage, there is no evidence of increased cases translating into unmanageable pressures on the NHS even in Bolton and infections, deaths and hospitalisations nationally remain at their lowest levels since last Summer.

So – and this is a balanced decision - I do not believe on present evidence that we need to delay our roadmap and we will proceed with our plan to move to step 3 in England from Monday, but I have to level with you that this could be a serious disruption to our progress and could make it more difficult to move to step 4 in June and I must again stress we will do whatever it takes to keep the public safe.

Our surveillance and data gathering is now so advanced, that if there was a danger of the NHS coming under unsustainable pressure, we would see the signs in the data very early on and could react in good time and that gives us the confidence to continue moving forwards for now.

But I urge everyone to exercise the greatest caution because the choices we each make in the coming days will have a material effect on the road ahead.

To those living in Bolton and Blackburn, I am very sorry that you are once again suffering from this virus. I know how hard it has been for you, having been in a form of national or local lockdown for longer than almost everywhere else.

But now it is more vital than ever that you play your part in stopping the spread.

We will not be preventing businesses from reopening on Monday, but we will be asking you to do your bit.

Take the vaccine when you can.

Get your free, twice-weekly rapid tests. If you do test positive, you must self-isolate – and we’ll provide financial support, to help to those on low incomes to help them do so and as we move away from living our lives by government rules and as we learn to live with this virus,

Then, as I said on Monday, we need to make our own decisions about how best to protect ourselves and our loved ones - informed by the risks and for those living in Bolton and other affected areas, there is now a greater risk from this new variant. So I urge you to be extra cautious.

Our best chance of suppressing this variant is to clamp down on it where it is and we will be throwing everything we can at this task.

Colonel Russ Miller – Commander of the North West Region - will be deployed to support local leaders in managing the response on the ground.

There will be surge testing, with mobile testing units, and the army will be on the streets handing out tests.

And there will targeted new activity in Bolton and Blackburn to accelerate vaccine take-up among eligible cohorts – including longer opening hours at vaccination sites.

And to everyone across the whole country, wherever you live, please get tested twice a week for free, get a jab if you are eligible, remember hands, face, space and fresh air observe social distancing from those you do not know and if you are seeing loved ones think really carefully about the risk to them especially if they have not had that second dose – or it hasn’t yet had the time to take full effect.

I want us to trust people to be responsible and to do the right thing. That’s the way to live with this virus, while protecting our NHS and restoring our freedoms.

And it’s very clear now we are going to have to live with this new variant of the virus as well for some time.

So let’s work together – and let’s exercise caution and common sense.

Published 14 May 2021