TfL is running a consultation on expanding the Ultra Low Emission Zone to nearly all of London, in August 2023.
This expansion would help get the most polluting cars off the road, helping our children to breathe easier. 1 in 10 children have asthma in London – we urgently need measures to reduce air pollution.
You can use this really quick email tool to respond (takes literally ONE minute).
https://bit.ly/uleztool
Strengthen your net zero strategy, High Court judge tells Government – Transportxtra.com
21 July 2022
ClientEarth lawyers Sam Hunter-Jones and Sophie Marjanac outside the High Court on the first day of the hearing
The Government’s Net Zero Strategy does not meet its obligations under the Climate Change Act to produce detailed climate policies, a High Court ruling has found.
The ruling follows a hearing at the Royal Courts of Justice in June, which considered the legal challenges brought by Friends of the Earth, ClientEarth, Good Law Project and environmental campaigner Jo Wheatley.
The judgment came on Monday 18 July, the same day as the Met Office’s first ever red alert for extreme heat.
Climate change: Key UN finding widely misinterpreted – BBC News
A key finding in the latest IPCC climate report has been widely misinterpreted, according to scientists involved in the study.
In the document, researchers wrote that greenhouse gases are projected to peak “at the latest before 2025”.
This implies that carbon could increase for another three years and the world could still avoid dangerous warming.
But scientists say that’s incorrect and that emissions need to fall immediately.
The IPCC’s most recent report focused on how to limit or curtail emissions of the gases that are the root cause of warming.
In their summary for policymakers, the scientists said it was still possible to avoid the most dangerous levels of warming by keeping the rise in global temperatures under 1.5C this century.
This will take a herculean effort, with carbon emissions needing to shrink by 43% by the end of this decade to stay under this threshold of danger.
How Sussex farmers plan to rewild a nature-rich green corridor to the sea | Rewilding | The Guardian
Patrick Barkham
When farmer James Baird read of Isabella Tree’s vision for rewilded land stretching from her Sussex estate all the way to the sea at Shoreham, he phoned up Tree and her husband, Charlie Burrell, and told them: “You’re going to the wrong bit of coast – I’ve got the last bit.”
Now Baird, a self-described “hard-nosed arable farmer” who owns virtually the last slice of undeveloped West Sussex coast at Climping Gap, the other side of Worthing to Shoreham, is the driving force behind the creation of a wildlife-rich green corridor linking the rewilded Knepp estate to the sea.
The Weald to Waves project aims to create at least 10,000 hectares (24,710 acres) of nature-friendly land in corridors running from the rolling hills of the Weald down the valleys of the Rivers Arun and Adur to boost biodiversity on land and in the sea.
Wales on wheels: bikepacking for novices | Snowdonia holidays | The Guardian
Take a bike, add a tent, hit the road: welcome to the pared-back pleasures of bikepacking. As the name might suggest, this is a multiday ride in which a cyclist pops camping kit into various bags on their bike frame. It’s a purist’s perfect bike adventure, and is fast becoming a popular way to explore the UK’s wildest corners on two wheels.
Low winds stopped what might have been new ‘great fire of London’, says expert | Climate crisis | The Guardian
James Tapper
Fires that burned in several parts of the UK last week spread in the same way as those that led to the great fire of London and would have been far worse with stronger winds, a fire expert has said.
Fires in Wennington, Uxbridge and Erith destroyed 41 properties last Tuesday, when temperatures went above 40C to make it the hottest day on record in the UK, and fire services had their busiest day since the second world war.
Guillermo Rein, professor of fire science at Imperial College London, said that strong winds played a major factor in spreading the 1666 fire, which lasted for four days and ended when soldiers blew up houses to create fire breaks, and the strong easterly wind died down.
Our new report on making cities accessible to everyone — Possible
February 17, 2022
In collaboration with University of Westminster’s Active Travel Academy, we have published a report detailing:
• The problems experienced by disabled people in our cities.• The impacts of the low-car transition on disabled people.• Pathways to achieving an inclusive low-car city.With transport accounting for 27% of the UK’s greenhouse gas emissions, a transition away from mass private car ownership in cities is needed to tackle the climate crisis. Creating these low-car futures must be a process which actively involves disabled people in order to best overcome the daily challenges and barriers they face.
In a climate crisis thinking about roads – Glenn Lyons
On Wednesday 20 July 2022 I travelled to an event to discuss roads and future investment in them. I was one of the invited speakers. Luckily I was late preparing my slides and only finished the day before. The news coverage for the preceding 48 hours more or less did the job of my presentation for me, as you’ll see.
Just Stop Oil protestors forcing sections of the M25 to close on the day. Record breaking temperatures the day before. The stage was set for my presentation.
It can be challenging to know your audience but my job was to situate road transport and future investment in the context of climate change. I took an early straw poll in the room – how many answered ‘yes’ to the title question? Most if not all in the room. Phew. But am I now the mad guy trying to remind people the house is on fire, or will I be well-received with open, concerned minds? That I can’t share here. But let’s press on with what I had to say.
GoCycle Expert Guide – Somerset Circle – WillCycle
Go exploring along the gorgeous Somerset Circle!
The UK has many disused railways, and many of these have been converted into shared paths. In fact, Sustrans’ very first path was the Bristol And Bath Rail Path, which follows the course of an old, disused railway, and forms part of the Somerset Circle. The Camel Trail in Cornwall, and most of the Tarka Trail in north Devon are built on disused railways, too, as are many shared paths. One of those paths is the Strawberry Line, in Somerset. The Strawberry Line is now a shared path, linking Cheddar with Yatton, but they have big plans to extend it much further.
Oxford’s three Cowley LTNs made permanent – Transport Xtra
21 July 2022
A trial of LTNs is East Oxford now underway
Three low traffic neighbourhoods (LTNs) in the Cowley area of Oxford have been made permanent after an 18-month trial, Oxfordshire County Council has announced.
But the cabinet said it will undertake additional community and stakeholder engagement to further refine the scheme, with any changes to be implemented by spring 2023. The council will also continue to monitor all aspects of the measures and bring forward proposals for changes through the consultation process, including the potential to…