Welcome to CAPS!
CAPS is the Climate Awareness Partnership Sidmouth
CAPS is about raising our awareness of the climate – and our collective action to address it.
CAPS is a partnership of Sidmouth Town Council and other local organisations – including the Sidmouth Churches, the Sidmouth Plastic Warriors , the Sidmouth Science Festival , Sidmouth schools and the Vision Group for Sidmouth
And the Partnership is open to all members of the Sid Valley community – whether individuals or organisations.
Here’s a list so far of The CAPS Partners
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The Four Aims of CAPS
The CAPS team have set out four aims to support our overall objective of raising community climate awareness. They are :-
· Organise talks and other events on sustainable behaviours:
o These will be on behalf of Sidmouth Town Council and be offered to Partners and other organisations across Sidmouth
· Publicise national and regional support to help households reduce their carbon footprint
o This will also explain when this can help save individual’s money
· Seek out opportunities to help households live more sustainably
o This will share practical ideas that could be adopted by Sid Valley residents
· Provide an electronic newsletter celebrating success
o This will be provided to individuals, as well as organisations, and will highlight positive carbon reduction activity in Sidmouth and beyond, promote future climate related events, and inform individuals of opportunities to get involved.
The Four Aims of CAPS – Climate Awareness Partnership Sidmouth
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SOCIAL MEDIA!
Don’t forget to join us in conversations online at the CAPS Facebook page – for example:
We need to be building truly sustainable, energy-efficient homes in the Sid Valley: | Facebook
*Record heat streak ends – what’s next | Facebook
Climate change is sometimes about the small details | Facebook
Inventions such as this could have a significant impact on energy harvesting | Facebook
More good news for the county council: | Facebook
Well done the county council: | Facebook
Climate Awareness Partnership Sidmouth (CAPS)
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EVENTS!
Thursday’s monthly Green Drinks
We have tried Green Drinks over several months now and have had generally quite low attendance. So it is with regret we will not continue the event. [Note from Dave Bramley, CAPS lead – “We had a brilliant talk in June by Nick Bromley on the Future of local transport services – attended by two of us. He has agreed to do a full presentation in the New Year”.]
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CAPS are planning a number of talks over the coming months…
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DOMESTIC RENEWABLES IN SIDMOUTH
FIRST TALK: SOLAR/BATTERIES/HEAT PUMPS: postponed to next year
A Sidmouth householder`s experiences of domestic renewable technology – solar, battery and heat pump.
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SECOND TALK: CAVITY WALL INSULATION: postponed to next year
A presentation on cavity wall insulation from the Installation Assurance Authority (IAA).
It is aimed at those people considering a cavity wall installation, but the processes and suitability for their homes needs to be better understood.
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SCIENCE FESTIVAL: PLASTIC RECYCLING: 11TH OCTOBER
Is Plastic the Enemy? – Addressing the problems of Plastic Waste. Talk by Martin Tickner.
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Tackling Plastic Waste Issues – Sidmouth Science Festival
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TALK FROM EXETER COMMUNITY ENERGY: 24TH OCTOBER
This ECOE talk is aimed at looking at practical ways to deal with fuel poverty – as well as how we can improve the comfort and sustainability of where we live.
2.30 to 4.30 and 7pm to 9pm – Thursday 24th October in the Cellar Bar of Kennaway House
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What’s On at Kennaway House Sidmouth | Upcoming Events
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The University of Exeter’s Global Systems Institute is also putting on a series of events over the coming months:
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Edit for Climate Events: : 2ND AUGUST – 10TH NOVEMBER
A GSI initiative to improve public climate change knowledge. You can improve climate change information accessible to millions! Researchers and climate change professionals are contributing one edit to Wikipedia’s climate change content in the 100 days leading up to COP29 (2nd August – 10th November). You can be one of them. All you need to do is find one climate change -related improvement to make to a Wikipedia article and email t.baleta@exeter.ac.uk of your proposed change.
See 100 Days 100 Edits for more information
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FOR MORE DETAILS: Events – Climate Awareness Partnership Sidmouth
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WHAT ACTIONS TO TAKE!
What we can do to ‘SAVE MONEY: SAVE THE PLANET’
A priority of CAPS is help households reduce their carbon footprint – and to seek out opportunities to help households live more sustainably.
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Here’s an updated guide to householders in the Sid Valley:
Green Guide to Saving Money and the Planet 2024
Is it cheap being green?
We think it can be. Kate, our sustainability manager, has pulled together 100 expert tips on greener ways to save money – from cooking and cleaning to travel and shopping habits – and even a few ways for getting paid to be eco-friendly. Kate’s calculated that, even if you just pick a handful of these tips to follow, with little effort a household of four could easily save £100 a month or more, whilst having positive impact on the environment... 100 Easy Eco-Friendly Ways to Save Money in 2024 – Green Tulip
What we can do to ‘SAVE MONEY: SAVE THE PLANET’ – Sustainable Sidmouth Champion Awards
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ADVICE & GRANTS
Free courses August-December: “Exeter College is proud to offer Awareness Courses in Retrofit, Solar and Heat Pumps.”
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Green Skills by Exeter College | Eventbrite
In particular:
Introduction to Retrofit – East Devon Tickets, Wed 21 Aug 2024 at 10:00 | Eventbrite
Introduction to Solar – East Devon Tickets, Thu 22 Aug 2024 at 10:00 | Eventbrite
Introduction to Heat Pumps – East Devon Tickets, Wed 28 Aug 2024 at 10:00 | Eventbrite
All courses are repeated in September – December
At Exeter Airport Industrial Estate Exeter EX5 2LJ
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East Devon businesses get help to reduce carbon and save money
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East Devon District Council is pulling out all the stops to support local businesses with a new Carbon Action Programme, followed by a linked grant scheme due in the Autumn.
The Carbon Action Programme (CAP) is a free package of support for businesses and community organisations looking to increase profit while reducing their carbon footprint. Free one to one support will help organisations understand and measure carbon emissions. Specialists will then provide a tailored carbon action plan to identify straightforward actions to cut energy use, reduce waste and transition to a low carbon future.
FOR MORE DETAILS: Advice & Grants – Climate Awareness Partnership Sidmouth
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FEATURES!
The River Sid and climate change
The UK is getting more hot and more wet days – all of which will impact the state of our rivers:
East Devon schemes to reduce the risk of flash-flooding risk along the Sid and the Otter have been provided with substantial funds – to help create more climate resilient places.
And there are several local, targetted initiatives along the Sid which are all about longer-term planning.
For more, see: The River Sid and climate change – The Sid
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“Earth’s growing fever has obvious repercussions for human health.”
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A lot of the effects of climate change seem rather abstract, from “harming health, through air pollution, disease, extreme weather events, forced displacement, pressures on mental health, and increased hunger and poor nutrition”, according to the UN.
Looking at exactly how global warming will harm human health and well-being is becoming clearer – as more unfortunate if not tragic events take place which can be seen as directly caused by changes in our climate.
And so, the Conversation looks at how a hotter world is likely to be a sicker world…
Features – Climate Awareness Partnership Sidmouth
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NEWS!
Catching up with some recent blog posts:
Can the UK become a ‘clean energy superpower’?
There is a huge amount of potential for clean energy production in the UK – and in the South West
Here’s a quirky video: something for the River Sid? Man Builds Free Energy Hydroelectric Power Plant | Start to Finish Build By @Chien-Tran – YouTube
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With another video from the government body Energy UK: How Britain could be a clean energy superpower
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Would a citizens’ climate assembly work for East Devon – or even the Sid Valley?
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How can we plan for reducing our impact on the climate – in a local, concrete way?
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Looking to local energy production
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Here are some more ideas on producing energy in our own back yard:
Looking to local energy production – Climate Awareness Partnership Sidmouth
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IMAGINE!
A weekly synthesis of academic insight on solutions to climate change, brought to you by The Conversation
The Conversation is a good place to go for in-depth news and analysis:
Climate change – News, Research and Analysis – The Conversation
It also has a weekly newsletter focussing on issues around climate:
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Imagine newsletter – News, Research and Analysis – The Conversation
The latest looks at maps – and whilst Sidmouth isn’t heating up the fastest, things are getting hotter in this part of the UK:
The data shown here is taken from Copernicus’ Interactive Climate Atlas, which is a constantly updated version of the IPCC’s Climate Atlas. You can see both the recently observed change and projected changes expected over the coming years to which we’ll need to adapt…
New maps show how the climate is changing in each UK constituency
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