A useful gathering focused on truth and hope

We invited Suzannah Newham, Sustainability Officer at Partnership member and Climate Leader Bristol Zoological Society, to share her thoughts from our gathering Transforming Bristol Together: A Work in Progress, held on 20 November. 

On 20 November, I had the opportunity to attend the Bristol Climate & Nature Partnership’s Transforming Bristol Together gathering, hosted by We the Curious. The event promised to be a space for businesses, community groups, and the public sector to gather, share ideas, focus on some of the ‘non-technical’ conditions essential for the transition to net zero, and remind us of the potential of our collective action.

As with all Bristol Climate & Nature Partnership meetings, it was great to be warmly welcomed by the team, be in a venue with sustainability and accessibility at its heart, be offered seasonal and delicious food – thank you Kate’s Kitchen Bristol – and to see sign language interpreters ready and raring to go.

Housekeeping out of the way, Bristol Climate & Nature Partnership’s CEO Lizzi Testani opened the event by referencing one of her favourite authors, Richard Powers, discussing his book Playground. Testani said she wanted the gathering, as Powers said about his writing, to be “useful, hopeful, and true”…

Truths were spoken freely…

• Jim Longhurst, UWE Bristol professor emeritus, opened his talk with a wakeup call – carbon emissions are at their highest ever level, 2024 is likely the warmest year on record, and the UK is far off track in meeting its net zero targets.
• Alex Minshull, Bristol City Council’s Sustainable City and Climate Change Manager used his time on stage to provide an overview of the Mission Net Zero programme and highlight the importance of knowledge being the power needed to overcome nervousness towards addressing climate change.
• Mary Lavin, Senior Manager, Sustainability and Reporting, at Osborne Clarke highlighted that part of that knowledge comes from understanding your own data and being able to compare it to others. She suggested need for a universally consistent approach to carbon accounting, reiterating one of my favourite adages – “you can’t manage what you can’t measure”.
• The Green Register’s Programme Director, Tom Westwood, stated that the language we use around addressing changing climate can be scary and unengaging. He said we need to talk more about the ‘green economy’, and less about the ‘climate crisis’ to win over those not already engaged in positive action.
• Transport and infrastructure were both highlighted as significant sources of carbon emissions for Bristol.  Both sectors were noted as not having made enough progress in decarbonising according to the Bristol Advisory Committee on Climate Change progress report.
• Event speakers and attendees were keen to highlight that more needs to be done, and is being done, to reach and engage vulnerable, marginalised, and minority communities, citywide – highlighting Bristol’s Just Transition Declaration, the leadership of community organisations such as Eastside Community Trust and Bristol Energy Network, Sensing Climate and the Climate & Disability programme.
• The scary financial impact of meeting the 2030 goal for net zero emissions is that we need to find and invest £7.8bn, and quickly!

However, the gathering was mostly one of hope…

Without fail, each guest speaker and panellist talked about the power of collaboration, with several, including Sophie Kempthorne, Innovation Lead for Innovate UK’s Local Net Zero Investment, suggesting it’s what makes Bristol stand out as a leader in the mission to net zero.  The Natural History Consortium’s CEO, Savita Wilmott, was keen to celebrate the “pockets of fantastic local work happening in every single ward of the city,” suggesting we need to recognise the achievements of collaboration at ward level and do more of the same.

Some of the funding helping Bristol to reach net zero was celebrated, with a focus on the collaborations delivering them:

• The ambitious Mission Net Zero programme, supported by funding from both Innovate UK and Horizon Europe, to make Bristol a more sustainable and inclusive city, is working with local people to address barriers to progress, such as developing new financial mechanisms and funding for improvements and having the supply chains and skilled professionals to do them.

Cllr Tony Dyer concluded that collaboration gives us hope, and that we can (and should) harness that hope to drive action.

But was it helpful?..

Of this, I wasn’t initially so certain. Florence Grieve, the Partnership’s Inclusive Transport Advocate, and writer/performer of a brilliantly emotive poem commissioned for the gathering, told us a “just transition is a complicated term for not leaving anyone behind”. But, many of those gathered in the room seemed to be the same as those gathered in other rooms, at other events, over the past several years. The language was still complicated, the solutions still complex. I left the event still not clear how our collaborative understanding of carbon truths and our unwavering hope can be translated into tools, resources, and funding that individual homeowners, small businesses/charities, vulnerable, marginalised, and minority communities, city-wide, can access, understand, and put into action.

However, a while after the event, I am still feeling buoyant and optimistic. I am still cheered to be part of a group of like-minded, focussed individuals representing some of the city’s most innovative organisations. I made several new connections at the event which are already resulting in new ideas and projects.  So, on reflection, yes! the gathering was indeed helpful. In line with Lizzi Testani’s closing remarks, the event served to remind us that we are not alone in our net zero journeys, helped reinforce existing and create new collaborations, and left us (me, at least) hugely re-energised.

Bristol Climate & Nature Partnership will be sharing updates, stories and opportunities from the Mission Net Zero programme over the coming months.

• Watch Florence Grieve perform A Window on Bristol
• Read more about Bristol Climate & Nature Partnership’s activities as part of Mission Net Zero, and register your interest in 2025 workshops
• Read more about the Transforming Energy Together programme from Centre for Sustainable Energy and community partners
• Get in touch with Bristol Energy Network to hear more about the Energy Champions programme
• Read about the Finance Co-Innovation Lab and the new Net Zero impact fund from Bristol & Bath Regional Capital
• Sign up to the City of Bristol Just Transition Declaration
• Get in touch if you would like to connect with any other elements of the Mission Net Zero programme, and we encourage you to come along to the next Green Mingle networking event to continue conversations and connect with other members: Green Mingle December 2024