Do you want to be a climate champion in your community? Would you like to help make where you live greener, safer and more pleasant? Are you looking for local ways to act on your environmental concerns? Then Net Zero in My Neighbourhood is just what you’re looking for!
These resources will help churches to support their communities in holding councils accountable over their climate action plans. The campaign encourages us to build relationships with our councils and facilitate meeting spaces for our communities to come together and discuss how we can achieve a just transition from fossil fuels where we are.
Read the pages below for background on the campaign, and download our practical guide for effective engagement with your local council.
Workshops
We’d love to help your church get started with engaging your local council on their net-zero commitments. We’ve produced a one hour interactive workshop, exploring the background to the project and the practical steps to getting started.
Book us to come and meet your group
Someone from the Joint Public Issues team could run a workshop with your group. This could be online although we can often offer in-person sessions too. Please contact us with some details about your group and your preferences for dates.
Run the workshop yourself
We’ve also put together a version of the workshop that’s ready for you to download and run with your group. You can find workshop notes for a group leader and an accompanying PowerPoint presentation download below.
Webinars with Hope for the Future
We ran two webinars with Hope for the Future in February and March 2023. Hope for the Future is an environmental justice charity with a wealth of experience in working alongside local councils and authorities to bring transformation to communities in the face of the climate crisis.
Ideal for anyone aiming to learn more about how to form relationships with councillors effectively, or who is just interested in lobbying, local government or the climate crisis.
If you’d like to see the webinars, let us know using the ‘Contact us’ link at the bottom of the page.
Local Elections
Are local elections coming to your neighbourhood in May? If you’re not sure, you can find out by clicking here.
Elections are a great opportunity to encourage candidates and councillors to engage with the issues you care about. You could encourage councillors to make a pledge, or begin a relationship with a new councillor just as they are taking up their position of responsibility.
Video
If you want to share more about Net Zero in My Neighbourhood with your whole church and you have elections coming up, why not share our video with your church at a worship service?
Our friends at Hope for the Future have created some really helpful resources to support your engagement with the local elections – you can find these by clicking below:
Sign up
Is this something you or your church would be interested in? Sign up to join our campaign mailing list and join the network of activists seeking a greener future for their neighbourhoods.