Search

New research on a project aiming to restore 100 hectares of land in 34 countries in Africa (AFR100), shows that restoration programmes delivered by planting trees in non-forest ecosystems are threatening the conservation of local habitats. Research conducted by Catherine L.Parr, Mariska te Beest, and Nicola Stevens analysed the AFR100 initiative by using tools such as RESOLVE and the World Resources Institute Atlas and found that almost all restoration programmes under this initiative are posing risks to the conservation of local ecosystems. By mapping areas classed as forests (or otherwise), and by applying a Landscape Integrity Index to establish the integrity level forests would need to undergo restoration, the study concluded that a total of 70.1 million hectares in Africa, an area about the size of France, have been committed to being restored through reforestation or tree planting and are in non-forest ecosystems (effectively grassland, or savannah). But how can afforestation threaten ecosystems? When it comes to ecosystem restoration projects, there are three main challenges that emerge: 1. Restoration based on reforestation and tree-planting At an international level, many restoration programmes are based on reforestation and tree-planting. The Forest Landscape Restoration (FLR) Framework is an international pledge supported by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and other organisations to support the 'process of regaining ecological functionality and enhancing human well-being across deforested or degraded forest landscapes'. To achieve this, the framework pledges to support agro-forestry, managed restoration, and tree planting. Tree planting, however, is not always the best suited action in restoration activities. When trees are planted in inappropriate ecosystems, they can create side-effects. For example, planting trees in grasslands (savannahs) increases the canopy, which has an immediate effect on the amount of light (or lack thereof), with a subsequent effect on species and food systems. In substance, the premise that restoration consists in increasing the tree cover as a main way to solve environmental degradation does not account for the specific and different needs each ecosystem has. 2. Misclassification of ecosystems Why would any conservation organisation want to plant trees in non-forest ecosystems? Ongoing criticism on the definition of some ecosystems continues to generate problems when it comes to restoration. The Food and Agriculture Organisation, WRI, IUCN and others define forests as those natural habitats with more than 10% canopy cover. Given the structure of savannahs, under this definition, savannahs fall under the forest category (rather than the grasslands category) and can undergo afforestation processes. However, the differences between tropical savannahs and tropical forests are many, including fundamental ones like opposite tolerance to fire and shade. Misclassification causes inappropriate restoration interventions, resulting in not only waste of resources, but also harm and potential loss of natural habitats. 3. Introduction of non-native species Finally, another big issue when it comes to ecosystems preservation is the introduction of non-native species, which are often invasive. In AFR100, the introduction of an invasive species called Grevillea Robusta has been observed to decrease biodiversity and influence the uptake of water, causing a detrimental effect on local populations and animals. This has also been the case in New Zealand, where planting an invasive species from North America called Pinus Contorta, has caused the displacement of birds and wildlife, and has affected local availability of land for agriculture and sustenance of communities. Contribute to the CSCEN Blog If you're interested in contributing to the CSCEN Blog, get in touch with us at environment.network@energysecurity.gov.uk. We'd love to hear your ideas!

Welcome to this 'Take a leaf out of my book' blog, where we explore the career journeys of some key movers in the environmental sector. David Hill has been Director-General Environment Rural and Marine in Defra since December 2019. Responsible for delivering the Government’s 25 Year Environment Plan, David leads on all aspects of domestic environment policy on land and at sea, including air, water, biodiversity, resource efficiency and climate adaptation. David’s team is currently taking the Environment Bill through Parliament, and he is a senior sponsor of the Civil Service Environment Network. Over the last 18 months, I’ve spent a lot of time (too much!) at my desk at home. But the easing of COVID restrictions meant this summer I have been able to get out and about a lot more – reconnecting with nature and reminding myself first-hand of why I do the job I do. From seeing tree-planting and peatland restoration in County Durham in one of our Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty, to fantastic work in Dartmoor National Park opening access to nature for disadvantaged children, improving the environment and enhancing opportunities for people to enjoy it has been one of the most fulfilling roles in my career. I don’t personally have a deep professional expertise in environmental science, although I am fortunate to work with some world-class scientists and experts, and many people in our arms-length bodies and partner organisations with significant knowledge and understanding of our natural environment. But I do still draw on my experience in lots of different roles over the years in ways which I hope will help us deliver environmental policies in ways which are both good for nature, good for the economy, and work for places. For example – over a decade ago I led on UK preparations for the Climate Change COP in Copenhagen. In many ways that COP fell short of expectations: we didn’t get the global deal we were aiming for (the next big step forward had to wait until Paris 2015), but it did show how closely much of what the UK was doing was followed around the world, with the recently passed Climate Change Act providing a template for governments on how to enshrine long term climate objectives in law. In many ways we are building on that experience today in wider environmental policy – with the 25 Year Environment Plan setting long term goals for environmental improvement and the Environment Bill currently going through Parliament creating a new framework for legally binding environmental targets. Before joining Defra I spent some time in local government, working for a county council on their plans to create new sustainable communities - with space for new homes and businesses designed and built to high environmental standards, with low carbon footprints. What this brought home to me is that too often the policies we pursue in central government are treated as separate – to be announced, funded, implemented and accounted for as distinct initiatives, whereas in local government we tend to think more holistically about what a place needs to succeed, to be healthy, green and thriving. We can learn a lot from local government about taking that joined up view. I see the environment as integral to lots of Government agendas – inextricably part of delivering good transport, economic or infrastructure policy. That’s why the work of the CSEN is so important in building a community of interest right across Government, as improving and enhancing the environment for the next generation is a job for all of us. Contribute to the CSEN Blog If you're interested in contributing to the CSEN Blog, get in touch with us at environment.network@faststream.civilservice.gov.uk. We'd love to hear your ideas!

Olivia Rutherford explores how COP26 promises to be a key political moment for climate action. As ‘incoming presidency’ of the 26th Conference of the Parties (COP26) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) held in Glasgow this November, it is the UK’s task to facilitate consensus agreement between 196 countries and the European Union on an ambitious, comprehensive and balanced outcome that helps accelerate the transition to a net zero, climate-resilient future. COP26 will also bring together sub-national actors, business, investors, civil society, youth and other key actors to enhance collaboration in support of that transition. In a ‘behind the scenes’ session delivered by the Civil Service Environment Network (CSEN), Stuart West (Head of Strategy, UN Climate Change Negotiations), Fiona Clouder (Regional Ambassador for Latin America and the Caribbean) and Matt Toombs (COP26 Director of Campaigns and Engagement) shared how the government and its diplomatic network are approaching the event. This year’s negotiations are framed by the legacy of past conferences held over the last 30 years, notably the universally binding international treaty signed in Paris in 2015. The Paris Agreement aims to ensure global temperature rise stays well below two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels whilst aiming for 1.5 degrees, boost countries’ ability to adapt to the impacts of climate change, and facilitate support for climate action in developing countries whilst promoting the alignment of broader financial flows with net zero, climate resilient development. “COP26 is a key political moment in the cycle of COPs” says West. “It’s the first COP since Paris where countries are expected to raise their game and show how they are taking enhanced action in line with the goals agreed in Paris.” Closing the “substantive gap” between the action that countries have collectively promised to take on curbing their emissions in the Paris Agreement and what they are actually doing is a priority for the Presidency of this year’s conference, Toombs explains. With the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic meaning preparation for the conference has been advanced remotely and masterminded across time zones, mobilising the global diplomatic network has been crucial in ensuring a range of diverse views has been included in the discussion on climate progress. Reflecting on the diplomatic network’s outreach ahead of COP26, Clouder commented: “It’s about listening and understanding the country, their perspective and the pressures that government and other sectors of the economy are facing. We are neutral hosts and are trying to broker international perspectives to collectively move forward on the agenda of net zero.” “Building dialogue with countries, understanding their perspectives, finding opportunities for collaboration, and articulating the COP priorities in terms that resonate for a country is very important”. For Latin America, the region under Clouder’s remit, there has been a disproportionate impact of the coronavirus, with eight per cent of the global population but thirty percent of global deaths. “This tragedy is not only about the health impacts but the longer term social and economic impacts”, Clouder explained. This is why it is important countries seize the opportunity to bounce back in a way that can deliver green growth. Despite the coronavirus pandemic, COP26 will be held in person later this year in a manner that is inclusive, in particular for developing countries, and safe, in line with COVID-19 guidelines. CSEN will be running subsequent events in the run up to COP26, available to civil servants across all departments. More details of these, and how to join CSEN, can be found on its website. Contribute to the CSEN Blog If you're interested in contributing to the CSEN Blog, get in touch with us at environment.network@faststream.civilservice.gov.uk. We'd love to hear your ideas!

In the run up to COP26, held in Glasgow in November 2021, UK Government representatives have been developing Net Zero (NZ) transformation initiatives for two of the worlds’ most polluting sectors: Transport and Energy. The representatives have been lobbying the international community to sign up to their campaigns. For the campaigns to acquire the momentum needed to sufficiently decarbonise the Transport and Energy sectors, multi-lateral engagement with Governments, Non-Government Organisations and the private sector is required. In a ‘Behind the scenes’ session delivered by the Civil Service Environment Network (CSEN), the panel included: Deputy Director, Head of Transport for COP26, Jenny Raynor, Head of COP26 Transport Policy, Department of Transport, Joanna Wooles and Head of Energy Transition at COP26 Unit, Cabinet Office Hana Chambers, who discussed their department’s ambitions and preparations for COP26. For the Transport sector, ambitions include the kick starting of the mass market for Zero Emission Vehicles (ZEVs), decarbonising maritime shipping corridors, the implementation of an International Civil Aviation Organizations (ICAO) process and the development of a World Economic Forum policy for NZ Aviation. For the Energy sector, campaigns are focused around 4 pillars: a transition away from fossil fuel (FF) energy, ending financing for coal power, scaling up clean energy and a just transformation away from FFs. The UK must take a leadership role to ensure that there are fair transitions into clean energy, with a focused priority on countries in the global South. Departments have been encouraging dialogue within their sectors, influencing policy decisions and empowering non-state actors e.g. local government and citizens, to take action, the progress of which will be presented at the COP26 Transport, Energy and Built Environment days in November. The Department of Transport are also working to facilitate sustainable transport solutions for delegates travelling to and from Glasgow. Raynor explains COP26 will need to overcome difficult challenges, such as consideration of sustainable alternatives to the different modes of transport used in the global south, and a future workplan to displace the threat of global job losses as nations move away from FF. Cross government and multi-lateral agreements are required for COP26 to succeed in pledges such as “Consign Coal power to history”. China and India are yet to step up to the table. Th COP26 presidency will prove to be an opportunity for the UK to take up the reins of global sustainable leadership. The UK’s overseas investment policy will be heavily scrutinised as it is considered the “Gold Standard” for other developed nations to follow suit. Domestically the UK will lead by example by striving to “be a hub for NZ technology” (including ZEV), their long term strategy to transition away from FF financial dependencies and preparing for the exportation of their green technologies e.g. wind energy. When asked ‘What will success look like [for COP26]?’ Wooles explained it would be “prioritising the maximization of commitments to campaigns.” In the run up to COP26 the panellists will be lobbying diplomats and non-state actors to sign up to the multitude of campaigns, preparing for a successful G20 meeting in October, assessing the effectiveness of policy measures and making logistical preparations for the two week conference. CSEN will be running subsequent events in the run up to COP26, available to civil servants across all departments. More details of these, and how to join CSEN, can be found on our website.

The passion and desire to get involved in environmental issues isn’t confined to one department or one location - civil servants from across the UK are coming together to help make a difference by planning and delivering activities that are aimed at supporting this important agenda in their region. Part of the remit of Civil Service Local, which sits within Cabinet Office, is to encourage the creation of networks across the Civil Service in order to address the themes that people feel strongly about. They have helped bring together and support civil servants across the regions of the UK to create new cross-departmental environmental networks. There are currently 5 environmental networks around the UK, read on to find out about each network and how you can get involved in your local region. Scotland Jenny Dee (jenny.dee@dwp.gov.uk) leads the Civil Service Local Scotland Environment Network. “Our group formed last year with 5 people who wanted to help educate about climate change and live our lives a bit greener. We now have over 50 members. Our short, sharp monthly newsletter is focused on small actions people can take, it has lots of pictures to appeal to those with not much time to read and to the families of readers with younger children. We run monthly ‘lunch and learn’ sessions featuring subjects from ‘honey bees’ to ‘saving our oceans’, with a focus on ‘what you can do’. Our next conference will be a fun way for people to see how they can reduce their Christmas carbon footprint.” North West The North West Environmental Network has a new lead in Jenny Hagan jenny.hagan@hse.gov.uk. The group has been busy, and in July held an online ‘Reduce, Reuse, Recycle’ event aimed at giving our unwanted plastics, make-up, clothes and electrical goods an extra life. This was followed up by an organised litter clean-up in the region. In addition, the network also produces a newsletter to update civil servants on their activities and to engage them on contemporary environmental issues. North East, Yorkshire & the Humber The network in the North East, Yorkshire and Humber is relatively new but already has a passionate lead in Natalia Tochenykh (Natalia.Tochenykh@dwp.gov.uk). She launched the network in July where she was joined by Olivia Herford from the Civil Service Environment Network to talk about exchanging ideas, shifting attitudes and taking tangible actions towards a better future. Natalia adds “As an individual and as a civil servant, I feel that there is an opportunity for all of us to do more to support our government in reaching its commitment to significantly reduce carbon emissions by 2030 and reach net zero by 2050”. South West and Wales Laura-Jane Harris (Laura-Jane.Harris@hmpo.gov.uk) and Sue Roach (Sue.Roach@dwp.gov.uk) are the co-leads for the South West and Wales Environmental Network. The group has been relaunched in 2021 following a hiatus. They have already worked with the Environment Agency to set up events to promote Plastic-Free July, and have been working with Paint360 to encourage the re-engineering of waste paint into brand new paint. With many miles of coastline in their region, another activity they are supporting is voluntary beach clean-ups. East, South East and London The lead for the East, South East and London network is Matt Dalton from the Food Standards Agency (matt.dalton@food.gov.uk). Like the Scotland network, it formed last year and has grown in numbers. The group has already held events aimed at helping to reduce your carbon footprint when working from home. The next piece of work they are looking at is related to the upcoming COP26 event, helping ordinary civil servants understand its importance through an open online session. What next? So, if this has inspired you to get involved yourself, and contribute to the network in your region, please email your listed lead. Or if you want to keep up to date with news from these networks, please sign up to receive email alerts from https://civilservicelocal.blog.gov.uk/. Contribute to the CSEN Blog If you're interested in contributing to the CSEN Blog, get in touch with us at environment.network@faststream.civilservice.gov.uk. We'd love to hear your ideas!

Alastair Johnson, from Defra's Environment Analysis Unit, introduces the world of natural capital and in the newly updated 'Enabling a Natural Capital Approach'. This blog was originally published by Defra, and CSEN is republishing with kind permission of the author. As the Natural Capital Committee said, our society, economy and individual wellbeing depends upon a healthy natural environment and yet it is often omitted from our analysis and policy. Natural capital provides us space to spend our leisure and exercise, the energy, food and water we consume, the air we breathe. It helps mitigate natural risks (flooding), air pollution and supports the health of the workforce. Did you know that: $44 trillion of economic value generation (half of global GDP) is moderately or highly dependent on nature (World Economic Forum, 2020)? Or that: “Biodiversity is declining faster than at any time in human history. Current extinction rates, for example, are around 100 to 1,000 times higher than the baseline rate, and they are increasing.” (Dasgupta Review, February 2021)? In policy making, a natural capital approach helps us to consider, quantify and in some cases put a monetary value on ecosystem services so that they can be more easily included in our decision making and policy appraisals. It also helps identify more innovative policy solutions as well as 'de-risk' our policies by helping to identify potential negative impacts. Many industries – chemicals, materials, aviation, travel, tourism, mining, metals, transport, retail and consumer goods – have ‘hidden dependencies’ on nature. So what exactly is ENCA and why should we use it? ENCA supports us to use a natural capital approach in decision making. It was first published in January 2020 and has just been updated. It’s an on-line resource developed by Defra’s Environment Analysis Unit to help consider the value of natural capital in decision making. It provides guidance and information to help users consider how the environment can support you in achieving your policy goals, as well as how your options impact on our natural capital and the ecosystem services it provides. We developed it so that everyone can use it including other government departments, NGOs, academics, as well as the private sector such as consultancies. We also developed it to remove the excuse that it’s all too difficult! Plus it is now official supplementary guidance to The Green Book: appraisal and evaluation in central government. ENCA resources will help us to adhere to official government guidance and contribute to Governmental commitments such as; achieving the Government’s 25 Year Environment Plan commitments, and 10-point plan for Green Industrial Revolution’. Read the ENCA here What ENCA can offer A Guidance document provides an easy to read introduction to the approach and signposts other resources. There’s an Assets Databook that gives an overview of the relevant ecosystem services provided by eight broad habitats and collates and summarises selected studies, tools, data and evidence. Then we have the Services Databook which collates the most relevant and cited sources, studies and key estimates for 24 categories of ecosystem services and environmental effects (e.g. provisioning, regulating, cultural) and has over 170 monetary estimate references. There is a Featured Tools section that provides detail on other tools which can be used such as maps and the biodiversity metric. Finally ENCA has over 70 case studies containing real world examples of natural capital approaches at a range of spatial scale as well as including nature based solutions, environmental valuations, natural capital accounts. So I do encourage you to have a rummage around in ENCA and to tell others about it. In the meantime, if you have any questions drop us a line at EnvironmentAnalysis@defra.gov.uk.

A group of cross-departmental Civil Servants have come together to make the Civil Service greener by reducing office wastage. Anika-Adel Barnes shares how her group have devised a Toolkit to educate and enable Civil Servants to increase paperless working, lessen their impact on the environment and make savings to the organisations they work for. Who are we? We are the Sustainable Civil Service team, a group we have established as part of the Civil Service Future Leaders Academy. Our team is made up of cross government Civil Servants from departments including HMRC, the National Crime Agency, the Department of Education, the Rural Payments Agency and the Probation Service. We came together with the common goal to support our colleagues within the Civil Service to think about how we can each do our individual bit in our workplaces to become efficient, lean and sustainable. Why does it matter? We are all aware of the massive impact that plastic and paper waste is having on the environment. It harmfully impacts our wildlife, contributes to deforestation, and not to mention paper accounts for approximately 26% of all waste that occupies land fill sites (The World Counts, 2021). The adverse consequences of our consumerist culture are visible on our planet when you look at the effects of global warming. There have been landslides in South America, forest fires in California, floods in China and closer to home in Germany. In the UK, we have seen increasing temperatures cause unprecedented heat waves and more extreme weather. How can we help? Considering this issue, as a team we consulted staff across our departments and using their feedback, we developed a toolkit to provide tips, tricks and ideas to colleagues on waste reduction, primarily looking at reducing paper use. The toolkit includes ‘how to guides’ on using tools within Microsoft Office and Google applications in a manner that supports sustainable working such as creating virtual to-do lists, using sticky notes or Google Keep rather than creating a hard copy on paper. The toolkit is user friendly and comes in a PDF format with active hyperlinks that allow the user to easily navigate through the content (see the toolkit here). What difference will it make? The Department of National Statistics records that there were 5.6 million people employed within the Civil Service in December 2020. If we all act within our individual organisations to decrease waste, just imagine what a major impact we could collectively make in reducing our negative influence upon the environment. As Civil Servants we have a responsibility to ensure that we conduct our work dutifully and with integrity this is a call to action; let’s all lean to be green!!! Where can you find more information? If you would like more information on environmental networks across the Civil Service, our team also developed a Directory of Environmental & Sustainability Networks (see the directory here). Contribute to the CSEN Blog If you're interested in contributing to the CSEN Blog, get in touch with us at environment.network@faststream.civilservice.gov.uk. We'd love to hear your ideas!

With this month's CSEN spotlight on sustainable food systems, the External Liaison Team dive into understanding food security and how this can be achieved in a way which doesn't compromise future social and environmental capacity to produce food. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (UN FAO) defines sustainable food systems as striking the perfect balance between economic, social and environmental sustainability. Balancing economic needs (jobs and income), with social requirements (equal and affordable access to food and nutrition, animal welfare, cultural needs) and environmental impacts (carbon and water footprints, soil quality, animal and plant health, biodiversity and toxicity) is a complex task, and one that requires multifaceted solutions. On a global and national level, improving supply chain efficiencies and optimising the use of agricultural land are two of the biggest ways in which food systems can be made more sustainable. Cutting costs and emissions through streamlining international food transport and intercropping can increase economic efficiencies and mitigate environmental impacts. Understanding the carbon and environmental footprint of food is critical to addressing the huge environmental costs of food systems (book club recommendation: How Bad Are Bananas?). Similarly, a shift towards more sustainable diets is widely recognised as one of the strongest potential contributors to future sustainable food systems as well as combating climate change. This includes eating foods that are locally produced, in season, and cutting down on meat and dairy consumption. The Climate Change Committee assumes a 20% reduction in meat and dairy consumption on average across the UK in order to achieve our Carbon Budge 6 target. Transforming food systems in this way requires coordinated policy action – we encourage CSEN members to think about their own food consumption, engage in departmental conversations and to think about how their work might feed into this overarching goal. On a localised and individual level, reducing carbon and resource costs of food can begin to contribute to the achievement of sustainable food systems. Increasing awareness of the benefits of shopping locally and buying seasonal fruit and vegetables mean that many people are already tuned into the ways in which they can contribute to a more sustainable food system. Whilst eating more sustainably is known to be good for the planet, it can also be good for our health. Milner et al. (2015) estimate that we could reduce UK emissions from food by 17% just by meeting our daily dietary requirements (and extend life expectancy by an average of 8 months at the same time!). Food sharing apps and redistribution programmes tap into the social dimensions of food waste, whilst community gardens and allotments allow for integration of the social and environmental requirements of sustainable food systems. We encourage CSEN members to consider the ways in which their individual actions might contribute to sustainable food systems. City Harvest A growing number of not-for-profit organisations redirect surplus fresh food from retailers and manufacturers away from landfills to charities and food banks across the UK. City Harvest, a London based social enterprise that CSEN have an established relationship with, have redistributed over 8,000 tonnes of surplus food and delivered over 22,000 meals to homeless shelters, soup kitchens, food banks, children’s programmes, centres for the elderly and refuges for women experiencing domestic violence. Not only does City Harvest reduce food waste and help to feed those in need, but the reduction of surplus food collection and disposal costs directly mitigates greenhouse gas release – so far, their work has prevented the release of an estimated 32,000 tonnes of greenhouse gases! Get involved The CSEN External Liaison Team would like to share some great opportunities for members to get involved: Make use of food waste apps, such as Olio and Too Good To Go Volunteer at a local food bank! Find one close to you here: Independent Food Banks Map - Independent Food Aid Network UK Stay tuned for our CSEN exclusive volunteering offer in partnership with City Harvest – use your volunteering days to join our network in working to redistribute surplus food for good! Contribute to the CSEN Blog If you're interested in contributing to the CSEN Blog, get in touch with us at environment.network@faststream.civilservice.gov.uk. We'd love to hear your ideas!

Daisy Jameson, from the CSEN Liaison Team, spoke to Hannah Gibbs, from B Lab UK, about how businesses can have positive environmental and social impacts, and asked how civil servants can support better business practices. Please note that the views in this blog are of B Lab UK, and do not represent the views of the Civil Service Environment Network. Can you provide a brief introduction to B Lab UK, the origins and growth of the B Corp movement, and how this sits within the wider context of business as a force for good? The current economic system, driven by business as one of its key actors, is not meeting its enormous promise to create positive impact. B Lab’s global vision is of an inclusive, equitable and regenerative economic system for all people and the planet. A leader in economic systems change, our international network creates standards, policies, tools, and programs for business, and we certify companies—known as B Corps—who are leading the way. B Corps are businesses that meet the highest standards of verified social and environmental performance, public transparency and legal accountability. The B Corp movement launched almost 15 years ago in the US and over five years ago in the UK. There are now over 4,000 B Corps in the world and 500 in the UK, including innocent, Ella’s Kitchen, Jamie Oliver Group, Abel & Cole, Bulb and The Body Shop. The UK B Corp community is the second largest in the world (after the US) and is one of the fastest growing. An essential part of B Lab’s strategy is catalysing policy change to enable business as a force for good. The Better Business Act is a campaign, initiated by B Lab UK, to change UK law to make sure every single company in the UK, whether big or small, aligns the interests of their shareholders with those of wider society and the environment. Can you tell us more about the Better Business Act? How have you managed to get this onto the government's agenda? The Better Business Act will transform the way we do business by amending section 172 of The Companies Act. The Act will ensure that company directors are responsible for advancing the interests of shareholders alongside those of wider society and the environment. The campaign is backed by a broad and growing coalition of leaders from across all sectors and all regions of the UK (there are now over 650 supporters, including John Lewis, Iceland and innocent). Many of these influential leaders have spoken with their local representatives about the campaign; the coalition has found support for reform from across Parliament including on the Government’s own backbenches as well as receptiveness within Government itself. A successful Parliamentary launch bringing together the Institute of Directors and the Trade Union Congress in calling for change, along with coverage in The Times, the Financial Times and Sky News has also made the Government sit up and pay attention. What impact do you see the BBA having on business practices in the UK and how will you go about measuring this? The Better Business Act will mean every single company in the UK, whether big or small, takes ownership of its social and environmental impact. This means freeing decision-makers in business to act in everyone’s long term interests – combining traditions of good stewardship and responsibility with new ideas to meet the challenges of the 21st century. This will change the nature of conversations in the boardroom, allowing for a more holistic approach to the challenges faced by the company’s directors. In situations where a director has to choose between the company’s intention to create positive social or environmental impacts and the interests of shareholders, the directors would no longer be compelled to default to prioritising shareholders. Following this change, businesses will be required to report on how they balance people, planet and profit in a strategic report or impact report, where one is currently required. At the moment, businesses are faced with a range of different reporting requests, but the approach proposed by the BBA should allow a company to share one consistent piece of reporting. What role do you see the government having in driving better business practices relative to private firms/lobby groups? Do you think businesses have a responsibility to shape more socially and environmentally responsible practices over traditionally leaving these decisions to government? If yes, is this linked to the urgency of environmental issues i.e. climate crisis? The climate emergency and social inequality are profound and pressing problems, thrown into sharp relief by the COVID crisis, that can only be solved if we harness the enormous potential of entrepreneurs, innovation and enterprise. Government alone cannot solve these challenges; instead it will require purpose-driven partnership between the State, businesses and communities. One way Government can facilitate this is by updating the legal context in which business operates - enabling an environment for business decision makers to adopt a long term perspective and incorporate the needs of all stakeholders. Our research shows that UK voters and consumers want business to do better. Three quarters of the UK public think business has a responsibility to protect the environment and the majority favour brands that do good in the world. What can we, as diverse civil servants and members of CSEN, do to champion the idea of better business practices in and outside our day jobs? Civil servants committed to leveraging the power of business to help address policy challenges should be confident in making the case for the Better Business Act to both colleagues across Whitehall as well as to Ministers in their own departments. The Better Business Act would empower more businesses to play a leading role in solving the problems of people and the planet that naturally cut across siloed policy areas. What message would you like to give to civil servants working on implementing the Better Business Act if and when it becomes government policy? Should the campaign result in legislation, those civil servants involved in implementation will be playing an important role in helping deliver a new contract between business and society. One that far better reflects both how today’s business leaders see their role and society’s heightened expectations. If passed into law, it is important that the Better Business Act applies to all businesses by default. It must no longer be optional to benefit wider stakeholders beyond shareholders. In the past, attempts to foster a greater stakeholder orientation have been largely voluntary, through guidance, and focused solely on larger companies. That the campaign has been driven by businesses themselves should give officials confidence; business leaders drawn from sectors and all regions of the UK recognise that the law has fallen behind business culture and want to see a meaningful change. More about B Lab UK, B Corps, and the Better Business Act What’s the point of saving for retirement in a world on fire? | by B Lab UK Better Businesses Empower Women. How Two Women-Led UK B Corps Are… | by B Lab UK B Lab UK Website Better Business Act Website If you're interested in contributing to the CSEN Blog, get in touch with us at environment.network@faststream.civilservice.gov.uk. We'd love to hear your ideas!

David Watts, CSEN Online Co-Lead, explains how we are improving the digital carbon footprint of CSEN Online, and shares ways you can reduce your impact. Did you know…? The internet uses roughly the same amount of energy as the UK – one of the world’s largest economies. According to one report, the carbon footprint of our gadgets, the internet and the systems supporting them account for about 3.7% of global greenhouse gas emissions – a similar amount to that produced by the airline industry. And with our increased reliance on these technologies, the emissions are predicted to double by 2025 ( BBC, 2020 ). Everything that we see online is stored physically on a computer somewhere. There are huge data centres filled with large cabinets dedicated to storing website data. These centres consume huge amounts of electricity to power and cool. Several years ago, it was common for businesses to maintain their own data centres. Today, many rely upon cloud services for their data centre needs. This means that they hire another company to provide the physical devices for storing their organisations’ data. This is how we operate at CSEN Online, by using a service provider that also gives us a content management system (CMS) for building and updating our website. Read on to find out how we are improving the digital carbon footprint of CSEN Online, and learn new ways to improve the sustainability of your online activity. Tips to reduce your digital carbon footprint Ultimately, in our work and life we are going to use the internet a lot - so by making small changes to your own habits, you could be helping to relieve your impact on the environment. Here’s some tips for quick ways to reduce your consumption: Put your laptop or computer to sleep when you take a break and turn it off completely at the end of the day and over the weekend. Lower your monitor brightness : A tip from Harvard Law School’s energy manager suggests that dimming your monitor from 100% to 70% can save up to 20% of the energy the monitor uses. Plus, lowering brightness reduces eye strain. Re-use your searches or go direct : Using search rather than simply going to the site sends the information from your browser to the search engine servers for data processing before returning a list of search results to your browser. That processing contributes to your digital carbon footprint. Using favourites and previous searches skips the ‘middle man’ (aka. The search engine) and therefore reduces the energy consumption required to get to your destination. Try Ecosia : Ecosia is a search engine with a difference – it funds tree planting with the profit from its searches. And you can literally see an approximate number of trees that your searches have directly contributed to planting! Think before sending emails : Even sending and receiving emails uses energy, and when you think about the volume of emails that every person sends and receives every day – that number can become very big, very quickly. So, unsubscribe from any annoying mailing lists that you ignore, and think twice before sending that one line “thank you” email. The numbers per email are small, but if more of us make these small changes we can see a much larger effect. We recently hosted Mike Berners-Lee who delivered a talk to CSEN members, and whose work has helped to highlight this and many other carbon footprint issues in public discourse. What are we doing on CSEN Online? We recently used an online tool to find out how much CO2 CSEN Online uses and found that 0.99g of CO2 was produced every time someone visits our page . We’ve brought this down even further to 0.87g in the past week from around 1.2g several months ago when we started our assessment. At 0.87g per page visit we are still a fairly ‘average’ performer – with the estimated average consumption across the whole internet around 1.76g per page view (according to Website Carbon ). We use the service provider, Wix, to create, manage content and host our website. It’s a great, simple system which can be operated by most of CSEN’s volunteers. However, our ability to fully assess our carbon impact and reduce or offset it is limited by the way Wix’s data centres work. Rather than hosting data itself, Wix outsources this to other centres, meaning that we can’t see how efficient they are or choose a specific provider that is more transparent. Like many other small voluntary organisations we face challenges in realising the full extent of our ambitions due to our limited resources, but we are determined to do our best with what we have. What we've learned Images Images look great and they bring web pages to life, but they can have a negative impact on carbon emissions. We are retrospectively compressing images posted to our blog and our webpages to consume less memory and, ultimately, less energy. For example, one image on our site was approximately 4MB (4,000KB) when we should be aiming for images to be below 100KB in size. We are now implementing a process to ensure that all of our website contributors compress images when creating and uploading content for our site. Video Much like images, video can bring websites to life. At CSEN we want to share our talks and webinars with our members after they have taken place so that new members can learn from them and attendees can re-watch. Until recently, we hosted videos on our website, but through research we found that YouTube provided a much better alternative. Although this risked simply moving our carbon elsewhere, we decided that Google’s efforts to minimize and offset CO2 in its data centres and operations was of greater benefit to the environment than the efforts of our web-service provider. Fonts While seemingly small, non-standard fonts can actually increase memory and energy consumption. System fonts like Arial and Times New Roman can be used without loading any additional files and therefore help to reduce CO2. At CSEN Online, we’re changing our fonts to Arial across all content and have already made this change for our website. This has the added benefit of improving our website’s accessibility too, with Arial font size 12pt being a recommended font for screen readers and assistive technologies. We know there is always more we can do to improve our environmental impact, and it’s especially important for us as the Civil Service Environment Network. Although the network and website is completely run by volunteers, we’re ambitious about what we can achieve and would be interested to hear any suggestions on how we can improve our digital carbon footprint even further. Further Reading BBC: Why your internet habits are not as clean as you think Greenpeace #ClickClean – learn how clean your favourite social media and websites are 8 Ways to reduce your digital carbon footprint 17 Ways to make your website more efficient Ecosia Website Carbon Wix – Web hosting Contribute to the CSEN Blog If you're interested in contributing to the CSEN Blog, get in touch with us at environment.network@faststream.civilservice.gov.uk . We'd love to hear your ideas!

Lizzie Lewis talks about plastic pollution, what she is doing to combat it, and how you can get involved during Plastic Free July. Everyone can play a part in Plastic Free July - a global movement that helps millions of people be part of the solution to plastic pollution. It has inspired over 326 million participants in 177 countries. Each year I have picked a single-use plastic item to give up from crisp packets to deodorant. This year I have chosen to ditch tea bags (some can contain plastic) and use loose leaf tea instead. The plastic issue Over the past few years there has been rising concern and awareness of the impacts of plastic pollution. It is estimated that 12 million tonnes of plastic enter our environment each year (Jambeck et al., 2015), that’s equivalent to a bin lorry load every minute. Of all the plastic produced 50% is for single-use plastic items (Garside 2019), things that are used for only a few moments and then thrown away. To me these are alarming statistics, but I also know I contribute to those statistics. Unfortunately, plastic has been found everywhere from Everest to the Arctic. I remember when I first found nurdles (small plastic pellets used to make plastic items) on my local beach. I thought it was a type of seaweed that I hadn’t seen before, and I still remember the sinking feeling when I found out it was a man-made item littering the beach. Animals can mistake nurdles and other plastics for food, and they end up accidently eating them. Ongoing research has also found that humans consume plastic and breathe it in during our day to day lives. The health impacts of this are being studied. The Environment Agency’s Plastics and Sustainability Team I joined the Environment Agency’s new Plastics and Sustainability Team in 2019. The team inspires positive behaviour change within businesses, communities and the education sector. Despite Covid-19, the team quickly adapted to virtual working and reached and inspired 120,000 people in 2020. The team works with colleagues internally and on the Interreg-funded Preventing Plastic Pollution Project. The project seeks to understand and reduce the impacts of plastic pollution by looking at the catchment from source to sea. What can you do? The great thing is we can all do something to reduce our plastic footprint. Following the waste hierarchy (avoid, reduce, reuse, recycle) is a great guide. Challenging your own resource consumption behaviours and transitioning from a consumer to a citizen, all contribute to reducing greenhouse gas emissions, particularly carbon dioxide and methane. If you would like to join a community of like-minded individuals to reduce plastic pollution, we run the Plastic Champions Network. The network is open to all government staff. We provide monthly newsletters, quarterly webinars, an annual conference, and opportunities for you to take your volunteer days to enhance your local environment or engage your local community. Email plasticsandsustainability@environment-agency.gov.uk for more information. My biggest tip to reduce your plastic footprint is to find your ‘why’. Find your motivation to reduce your environmental footprint and keep reminding yourself of it whilst you make the small changes, because many small changes collectively make a massive difference. So, what changes will you make this Plastic Free July? Lizzie Lewis is a Project Officer in the Plastics and Sustainability Team at the Environment Agency. She also leads the cross-government Plastic Champions Network. References: Global plastic pollution statistics, Garside, 2019; Plastic waste inputs from land into the ocean, Jambeck et al, 2015; Impacts of plastic on environmental pollution, Pavani and Rajeswari 2014. Contribute to the CSEN Blog If you're interested in contributing to the CSEN Blog, get in touch with us at environment.network@faststream.civilservice.gov.uk. We'd love to hear your ideas!

Find out about upcoming volunteering opportunities from our External Liaison and Volunteering Team. Hello CSEN! We are your new external liaison team and are keen to develop CSEN’s volunteering offer and partnerships with external stakeholders in the world of climate change, environmental policy and local action. The team is Chloe (Economist in MHCLG and head of the liaison team), Nuala (Policy in Ofwat) and Daisy (Economist in DHSC). If you have any thoughts or suggestions please get in touch. We plan on maintaining our existing relationships with volunteering programmes with organisations such as City Harvest, a London based food charity that puts fresh surplus food to good use in a sustainable way by redistributing it to organisations that feed the hungry. We are also planning to work with regional teams to develop our offer across the Civil Service. Keep an eye out for opportunities on CSEN Online! For this month’s volunteering opportunity, please see details below on how to join or organise a national cross-government litter pick to celebrate World Environment Day, the United Nations' vehicle for encouraging awareness and action for the protection of the environment. This year’s World Environment Day theme is Ecosystem Restoration. How to organise a litter pick When? Monday 7 June, 12:00 – 14:00 What? Use your lunch break to join the Plastic Champions Network and undertake a litter pick, enhancing your local environment for future generations. Sign up on Eventbrite to receive a ‘how to organise a litter pick’ guide, a risk assessment, and further guidance and support. Any questions, please get in touch with us via the CSEN Mailbox! Chloe, Nuala & Daisy Upcoming events

The 2021-22 CSEN co-chairs introduce themselves and outline their plans for the coming year. Hello! We are the new CSEN co-chairs and took over from the previous committee in April, together with our committee of around 30 dedicated volunteers. We’re excited to build on the successes of the previous committee and make a few changes. Our key priorities for this year are to increase diversity in our offer and membership, create a more structured approach to monthly themes throughout the year and increase CSEN’s real world impact. We want our offer to provide civil servants with the knowledge, skills and experience to progress environmental considerations in their work across all departments. You can read more about our vision and strategy in the slide below. About us Laura is a statistician at DfE and is leading our comms and liaison workstreams. Her environmental podcast recommendation is BBC Radio 4’s ‘Costing the Earth’. John works in BEIS on Sustainable Behaviours & Public Engagement for Net Zero, and Clean Growth. He is leading our Talks, Discussion Group and Content Creation workstreams. His book recommendation is Gavin Thurston’s ‘Journeys in the Wild: The Secret Life of a Cameraman’. Matt is Head of Strategy at GCHQ and leads our careers and networking workstream, our new policy workshops initiative and our surge unit. His environmental TV recommendation is David Attenborough’s ‘Perfect Planet’. We look forward to seeing you at our events and on our online forums over the next year! Laura, John and Matt Contribute to the CSEN Blog If you're interested in contributing to the CSEN Blog, get in touch with us at environment.network@faststream.civilservice.gov.uk. We'd love to hear your ideas! Upcoming events

Another 'Take a leaf out of my book' blog, where we ask people who work in an environmental area to write about their career journey to date: highs and any low points, challenges and accomplishments. I am the Deputy Chief Scientific Adviser for Defra. That means I look after a team of around 50 people dedicated to putting science at the heart of what Defra does. We help make sure we procure and access the best science, bring in experts in subjects relevant to Defra’s agenda, support the thousands of scientists who work across the Defra Group, and drive innovative scientific thinking and processes into the department’s work. As the son of two biologists, I have always loved nature and thinking about how the environment works, from the individual organism to whole landscapes. I grew up on a diet of David Attenborough documentaries, keeping carnivorous plants and stick insects (separately!) as hobbies, and I can still find something new and interesting to spot on nearly every walk through the countryside. I have also, since starting University, always wanted my science to be really useful to society, and this is why I have been so fortunate to work in many parts of Defra through my civil service career, supporting their work to enhance the environment that we all depend upon. --- I worked in a lab at the John Innes Centre for several years before becoming a Civil Servant. This gave me the opportunity to talk about my science (crop genetics) with professors, politicians, farmers, children, and even shoppers in the central shopping mall! Having to explain what I was doing, and why it was important, to so many different people has really helped me in my current role to understand just how many ways there are to communicate, and how important it also is to listen to what others think of what you are doing – you can always learn if you keep your ears open. Advice to someone wanting to pursue an environmental civil service career? Keep your environmental interests and passions alive, but also explore jobs and opportunities outside your “comfort zone”. I would never have guessed I would end up negotiating internationally, managing a National Ecosystem Assessment, or supporting the response to a pandemic as part of my job when I joined Defra as scientific liaison officer in the Horticultural Crop Sciences Unit nearly 20 years ago. But remaining interested in a wide variety of environmental issues and science has enabled me to have a really varied and fascinating career (so far!), and I hope has meant that I bring more to each new job that I take on. How does your work contribute to the UK's net-zero target/the goals of the 25 Year Environment Plan? Science and other forms of evidence and analysis are absolutely vital to meeting the environmental challenges that the Net Zero target and 25 Year Environment Plan are aiming to address. That might be because we need to think of new ways to do things (e.g., produce our food or recycle our waste), or have new ways to understand how the environment is changing (through earth observation or DNA-based techniques). What I think is key, however, is being able to “think outside the box” as we search for new ways forward. We need to bring together different scientific disciplines, and bring together experts from different professions entirely, to focus on the many important issues we face. Being in the Chief Scientific Advisers’ office gives me the opportunity to do just that, which I hope will help us all to make the progress we need to. And to end...if you could visit one habitat on earth, where would it be? I’ve visited rainforests on every continent where they exist (I love a good rainforest – especially at night!), but I’ve not yet managed to visit Madagascar, which I would dearly love to do, as it really is a “mini continent” in itself as far as its biology is concerned. One day maybe… Contribute to the CSEN Blog If you're interested in contributing to the CSEN Blog, get in touch with us at environment.network@faststream.civilservice.gov.uk. We'd love to hear your ideas!

This month, CSEN will be launching the first of our series of Environment 101s, a web-series explaining and exploring the biggest issues in environmental policy in short and accessible videos. Look out for them, coming soon on the CSEN website and our social media platforms. Jake Billingham works in Operational Research at the Department for Work and Pensions, and is interested in climate change, sustainability, and renewable energy. Monty Gould works in Sustainability Policy at the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs, and is interested in climate change, sustainability, and economics. Contribute to the CSEN Blog If you're interested in contributing to the CSEN Blog, get in touch with us at environment.network@faststream.civilservice.gov.uk. We'd love to hear your ideas!

We’re always keen to hear from our diverse environmental civil service professions. This month we shed a light on the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office’s (FCDO) Climate and Environment (C&E) Cadre which carries out a crucial role. We spoke to Paul Eastwood who heads up the profession. What are FCDO’s Advisory Cadres? FCDO has its own internal sectoral professions called ‘cadres’. Advisers are accredited to one or more of thirteen advisory cadres which are professional bodies within FCDO – such as Conflict, Education, and this month’s focus – the Climate and Environment cadre. Accredited advisers are experts in international development policy and programme delivery. Roles may range from programme design, appraisal, management and evaluation; in the development and implementation of policy; and, in development diplomacy and international partnerships. Do people become accredited and provide expertise alongside other work (or is the profession ‘full time’)? The profession is full-time if an adviser occupies an advisory role relating to their profession. Some advisers take up non-advisory roles, such as a team leader in a different policy area, or a management role in the UK or overseas, and so they stop being a full-time adviser although might still provide some professional advice on ad hoc issues if the need arises, such as on a complex programme design or review. How many work in the Climate and Environment cadre? There are around 65 accredited advisers spanning SEO-G6 grades, around half of which are overseas or seconded to other organisations. How does the C&E cadre's work link up with other government departments? Through specific policy issues, such as on forests where there is a strong connect with BEIS and Defra. For example, our forest specialists worked closely with Defra on taking forward recommendations from the Global Resources Initiative such as the new requirements being introduced on commodity imports to demonstrate that they are not associated with illegal logging. What does work in the Climate and Environment Cadre look like? C&E Advisers deliver policy and programmes at bilateral, regional, and international scales. For example, my previous role in Indonesia was working with the Indonesian government to strengthen the sustainability of timber and palm oil production and trade, two of their largest natural resource commodities. This work was delivered via a technical assistance programme that I managed plus bilateral dialogues to agree terms of trade between the UK and Indonesia. Some of our UK based advisers are more focussed on policy, whether to shape our overall delivery to ensure our ODA complies with UK commitments on the environment, or to influence the C&E policies of our partners such as the World Bank. Who joins the cadre as an advisor and – how might I get involved? The cadre is internal to FCDO at present, so to join you need to first be a staff member. The C&E Technical Competency Framework sets out the standard for accreditation at the various grades. In the past we have issued calls for people external to FCDO to accredit as a pre-qualification to applying for an advisor position as and when they are advertised. With the creation of FCDO we are thinking through how to approach this in future. You can contact Paul Eastwood on paul.eastwood@fcdo.gov.uk or @pauleastwd on Twitter

This month marks our fifth careers blog, 'Take a leaf out of my book', where we ask people who work in an environmental area to write about their career journey to date: highs and any low points, challenges and accomplishments. Protecting the environment for future generations and creating prosperity through a green economy is a pretty good reason for turning on the laptop. That’s what I do each day as Deputy Director for Environment Strategy and the 25 Year Environment Plan in Defra. This is a job I’ve had since October 2020. Before that I was developing our replacement to the Common Agricultural Policy and passing the Agriculture Act 2020. Our farming reforms are aimed at a thriving agriculture sector that sustains nature rather than depletes it. Now I am working on what those environmental gains should be. Five years ago, I would never have thought I would be talking about nature-based solutions. Although trying to get squabbling departments to agree was, in the Cabinet Office, a form of integrated pest management. My career has given me opportunities to play a part in making the UK a better place to live. In 2002, I joined the Civil Service and spent two years working on the Civil Partnership Bill. This allowed same-sex couples to form legal relationships akin to marriage. And happened at a time when there was still a lot of prejudice and resistance to change. This was a personal highlight of my career. We changed people’s lives for the better – and half the team were getting engaged on the day the legislation passed. After that I worked on consumer and competition policy in the Business Department (DTI, BIS, BEIS – I’ve lost track), travelling around Europe to negotiate the Consumer Rights Directive. The Cabinet Office was my next stop where I headed up the legislation team in the Economic and Domestic Secretariat (EDS). This team manages the government’s legislative programme, writes the Queen’s Speech (not the Christmas one) and runs the Parliamentary Business and Legislation Committee which clears government Bills for introduction into Parliament. My next big job was as Principal Private Secretary to the Rt. Hon Oliver Letwin. Oliver was David Cameron’s policy fixer and Minister with overall responsibility for the Cabinet Office. Running a Private Office in Downing Street was incredibly exciting, negotiating with Cabinet Ministers and visiting everywhere from Baghdad to Beijing to Bulgaria. I supported Oliver in keeping the coalition government together and running some of the big cabinet committees like Home Affairs and Constitutional Reform. And then I came to Defra in 2017 to oversee the development and successful passage of the Agriculture Act 2020 – the most radical reforms of agriculture in 50 years. Now I am leading on setting ambitious legally-binding environmental targets, performance against the Plan and the environmental partnerships we need to implement our reforms. I hope I bring to this job a sense of how we can make our case for environmental protection and restoration in a world of competing priorities. Yes, Defra is interested in the long-term but economic growth and prosperity depend on our natural resources. It’s inspiring to work with people who want to be here and Defra has benefited from people coming into the fold from other departments and the third sector. It can feel a bit daunting trying to save the planet but all jobs have an element of the fear factor. What would I tell myself 10 years ago that I wish I knew then? Embrace new adventures, focus on what you are good at but stretch yourself. Don’t limit your horizons. Control your diary to do the things you need to do.

Jake Billingham reflects on the relationship between gender and climate disaster, and celebrates the significant contributions of women in the environmental field for International Women's Day 2021. Climate change affects us all, and women disproportionately so. Gendered poverty rates, societal roles, and the existence of gender-based violence in conflict make women particularly vulnerable to the impacts of climate disaster. On top of this, discrimination and structural barriers to education can prohibit women from participating in government and decision-making. International Women's Day is an opportunity to reflect on such issues. It is also a time to celebrate the influential women whose work in government, science, and activism has shaped our environmental understanding and our priorities for change. Wangari Maathai’s initial work as a vet in Kenya exposed her to the impact of environmental degradation on local people. As a result, she founded the Green Belt movement which sought to address poverty by planting trees. Maathai also challenged corruption and injustices present in Kenya’s political system, going on to win the Nobel peace prize in 2004. She was the first woman from the African continent to gain this recognition. The name Greta Thunberg hardly needs any explanation; her “skolstrejk för klimatet” (‘school strike for climate’) protest grabbed the world, inspiring millions of young people across hundreds of nations to do the same. She has delivered speeches across Europe and the Americas, including at COP24 and 25, the European and British parliaments and the United Nations Climate Action Summit, all the while refusing to travel by plane. Thunberg is now back in her native Sweden and has resumed her schooling but remains an active campaigner. Christina Figueres was appointed Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in 2010 following the COP15 conference. Alongside figures such as Patricia Espinosa and Connie Hedegaard, she subsequently led the UNFCCC to five successful conferences. This culminated in 2015 with the landmark signing of the Paris Agreement at COP21. In 1856, Eunice Foote published the first scientific paper detailing the phenomenon we now refer to as the ‘greenhouse effect’. Any initial recognition by the scientific community was brief and inconsistent, and Foote’s experiments were quickly forgotten, perhaps due to her amateur status and gender. It was not until 2010 that Foote’s work was rediscovered and elevated to its appropriate level of reverence. Dr Rhian-Mari Thomas OBE is Chief Executive of the Green Finance Institute following on from years pioneering environmental thinking at Barclays. Within the Civil Service, Marian Spain works passionately, as Chief Executive of Natural England, to preserve and enhance the natural environment for all UK citizens. There are many more people who deserve recognition: Sunita Narain, Varshini Prakash, Marina Silva, Kate Marvel, Vanessa Nakate and Hindou Oumarou Ibrahim to name a few. Perhaps even more significant are the thousands of small-scale initiatives led by women that make an enormous difference to local communities. There are the indigenous women of Colombia, Ecuador and French Guiana fighting for and conserving the land they live on [1]. Or the Fijian market vendors’ associations that empower members to become climate-resilient in the face of devastating cyclones [2]. Or the Moroccan journalist producing radio and television programs on environmental protection and climate change in the Amazigh language [3]. These women refuse to be victims, utilising their unique knowledge and skills to overcome immense challenges. Jake Billingham works in Operational Research at the Department for Work and Pensions, and is interested in climate change, sustainability, and renewable energy. Contribute to the CSEN Blog If you're interested in contributing to the CSEN Blog, get in touch with us at environment.network@faststream.civilservice.gov.uk. We'd love to hear your ideas! Bibliography [1] K. Price, "Meet 3 indigenous women fighting to save the planet," Conservation International, August 2019. [Online]. Available: https://www.conservation.org/blog/meet-3-indigenous-women-fighting-to-save-the-planet. [2] UN Women, "In the words of Varanisese Maisamoa: “We want to empower our market vendors to be climate resilient”," November 2017. [Online]. Available: https://www.unwomen.org/en/news/stories/2017/11/in-the-words-of-fiji-varanisese-maisamoa. [3] A. Pero, "The Women Behind Biodiversity Conservation and Climate Change Adaption," Cultural Survival, November 2018. [Online]. Available: https://www.culturalsurvival.org/publications/cultural-survival-quarterly/women-behind-biodiversity-conservation-and-climate-change. [4] A. Thomas, "Power structures over gender make women more vulnerable to climate change," Climate Home News, August 2020. [Online]. Available: https://www.climatechangenews.com/2020/03/08/power-structures-gender-make-women-vulnerable-climate-change/. [5] Time , "Meet 15 Women Leading the Fight Against Climate Change," September 2019. [Online]. Available: https://time.com/5669038/women-climate-change-leaders/. [6] N. Barth, "10 Woman Environmentalists You Should Know About," Greenpop, July 2020. [Online]. Available: https://greenpop.org/10-woman-environmentalists-you-should-know-about/. [7] J. McCarthy, "Why Climate Change Disproportionately Affects Women," Global Citizen, March 2020. [Online]. Available: https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/how-climate-change-affects-women/utm_source=paidsearch&utm_medium=ukgrant&utm_campaign=genericbrandname&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIrNvxgq6o7wIVj853Ch1PJQRrEAAYASAAEgIKVPD_BwE. [8] M. Alam, R. Bhatia and B. Mawby, "Women and Climate Change," Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security, 2015. [9] C. Nellemann, R. Verma and L. Hislop, "Women at the frontline of climate change: Gender risks and hopes.," United Nations Environment Programme, 2011.

Mark Thomlinson introduces the local climate action group working on sustainable energy initiatives in North Kensington, London. Climate action can sometimes feel slow, intangible, and - at its worst - hopeless. But where it’s vibrant, exciting and real right now is North Kensington, the neighbourhood of Grenfell Tower, where a few weeks ago we successfully completed the crowdfunding for solar panels on the Westway Sports Centre. The solar panels will save 28 tonnes of CO2 every year, the equivalent of the carbon sequestered by more than 3000 trees. Better still, profit will create a £42,000 Community Fund to benefit the local area. There is so much I love about this project, which is run by North Kensington Community Energy (NKCE), supported by Repowering London. The concept is this: we crowdfund to install community-owned solar panels, pay a healthy 3% interest to investors, then sell the electricity at a discount to the building owner. It’s climate action, it’s community ownership, it’s profits staying local. You can probably do it where you live, too. Kensington is not a part of the world short of wealthy investors, but many of the 200+ NKCE members are people from middle and low-income backgrounds who want to be part of building a sustainable world. There is a maximum investment, and the minimum investment starts at £50 for residents under 25 years old or on benefits, meaning that more people can get involved. All investors become members of NKCE and have a say on how the co-operative is run and how the Community Fund is spent. This community element is especially important for a borough that despite its wealth also has high levels of deprivation. NKCE has successfully completed projects in the past, too. In 2019, we installed solar panels on two schools, Avondale Park and Thomas Jones primary schools, and on a community centre. We hope to keep going. If the Local Electricity Bill passes through Parliament, this would mark an important step for community energy. It will allow surplus generation to be sold to local people rather than to utility companies (often at a bad price), and wins are needed now that the feed-in-tariff, a government subsidy, has ended. But maybe the most exciting part of NKCE is the networks we are building. Twice a month, volunteers meet (online for now) to discuss how we can move forward, and on 23rd February, we partnered with Lambeth Community Solar to share our experiences. To my surprise, NKCE is full of young people, and regular volunteers come from all age groups and include retired teachers, people working in PR, academia – and even the Civil Service! Climate action can look like many things, and isn’t all about gluing yourself to trains. In my case, it was finding a group of passionate people in NKCE who inspire me to do more. Influenced by friends of mine who seem to prefer the ‘ostrich approach’ to the environmental crisis, my original plan was to attend just one volunteer meeting and see how it went. But surrounded by motivated people, feeding on each other’s energy, I now find myself actively engaged, building the networks we need to make change; and building a world I believe in. Find out more NKCE website Follow on Twitter @NorthKenCE Find them on Facebook Contribute to the CSEN Blog If you're interested in contributing to the CSEN Blog, get in touch with us at environment.network@faststream.civilservice.gov.uk. We'd love to hear your ideas!

Dr Phil Raymond explains how climate science is used to fuel policy and decision-making in government, and shows you how to get involved. Since the 1800s, scientists have understood the greenhouse effect. We also know for certain that human emissions are driving this effect in the real world. But how important is new research in climate science? Do we already know enough to simply focus efforts on reducing emissions and adapting to climate change as quickly as possible? It’s certainly true that we already know enough to act immediately – and it’s crucial that we do so. However, science has a vital role in driving climate policy and highlighting solutions at all levels, from international negotiations all the way down to local government. Science-based policy The Paris Agreement, for example, is the international treaty governing climate action from 2020 onwards, and is grounded in science as assessed by the world’s authoritative and Nobel Prize-winning body on climate science, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The IPCC’s first major report prompted the creation of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), under which the Paris Agreement was negotiated. The Paris Agreement’s temperature goal to limit global warming to well below 2°C while pursuing efforts towards 1.5°C is based on the IPCC’s assessment of projected climate impacts at different levels of global warming. Similarly, science on emissions reductions and carbon budgets led to the Agreement’s global commitment to balancing sources and sinks of greenhouse gases within the second half of the century. Closer to home, the UK’s 2050 net zero target was only made law after a scientific assessment by the independent Committee on Climate Change, who showed that this was an achievable goal. They drew on another IPCC report, which demonstrated the global emissions cuts needed to achieve the 1.5°C goal of the Paris Agreement, and the consequences of failing to do so. We use science for almost every aspect of climate policy. It doesn’t just tell us about how challenging the problem is; it also guides the practical mitigation and adaptation solutions we need to build a net zero climate-resilient word. Regional information on climate impact can inform risk assessments and adaptation plans. Information on the positive and negative side-effects of different policies can help us to implement them more effectively. And with every new bit of information, science can build the public engagement and political will needed to drive ever more ambitious climate action across the world. Science in government The UK Government has its own Climate Science Team, based in the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), with many more climate experts across the Civil Service. Our job is to provide impartial scientific advice to policy teams and Ministers, and to support the research community to help it provide robust and policy-relevant research. We also represent the UK within the IPCC, where we work to ensure that climate science is communicated clearly and accessibly across the world. This is obviously a huge job, which we can’t do alone – and you can help! Tackling climate change is an unprecedented challenge, requiring massive transformation in all areas of society. No matter where you work, it is highly likely that your area of work will be affected in some way. And outside of work, every single one of us can make changes to lower our personal carbon footprints. Read the climate science narrative To help you, the BEIS climate science team have drawn together the best available evidence on why we need more ambitious global climate action, and how science can help us find practical solutions to get us there. The Climate Science Narrative is an easy-to-understand resource summarising key information from the latest IPCC reports into just ten key points, with plenty of other useful facts and stats. We need everyone to play their part by raising awareness and understanding of this crucial issue by drawing on the key messages for speeches, briefings, and other communications – whatever your field of work. But don’t forget that one of the best things you can do to tackle climate change is to talk to other people! So, before you strike up that conversation with a friend or family member about how to reduce your own carbon footprint, make sure you know your stuff and give it a read! Review the latest science But that isn’t the only way you can get involved! The IPCC is in the process of producing its 6th Assessment Report (AR6) on physical climate change, climate impacts, and adaptation and mitigation responses. This report will help shape national and global climate action at a crucial moment and needs to be reviewed by experts and governments from around the world. We are seeking volunteers across all government departments to review relevant sections of the 3rd part of the AR6. This covers mitigation of climate change, including topics such as greenhouse gas emissions, energy systems, land use, social aspects of mitigation, urban environments, buildings, transport, industry, finance, innovation, technology and sustainable development. The review will take place between 18th January and 18th February and we will provide guidance on how to review the report. There is no need to review the whole report or even whole chapters – any expertise you can bring to any part of the report would be appreciated! If you are interested in contributing, then please email andrew.russell2@beis.gov.uk with a brief summary of your relevant interests. It’s an incredibly exciting year for climate, with COP26, the UK’s 6th Carbon Budget and Net Zero Strategy, and a UK G7 Presidency all on the horizon, so there’s no better time to champion science and make sure it’s at the forefront of all our decision-making. To find out more Dr Phil Raymond is a Senior Climate Science Adviser in the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy. Contribute to the CSEN Blog If you're interested in contributing to the CSEN Blog, get in touch with us at environment.network@faststream.civilservice.gov.uk. We'd love to hear your ideas!