Upcoming event: “Climate Violence, History and Resistance” Jan 21

Posted on January 14, 2012 by manchesterclimatemonthly

This event, happening next Saturday in Hulme, looks to be a useful opportunity to meet like-minded people and think a bit about how we got into this mess, and who is suffering right now (hint: it isn’t just polar bears). It is NOT organised by Manchester Climate Monthly.  See below for contact details.

Southern Voices: Workshop on Saturday, January 21, 2012
CLIMATE VIOLENCE, HISTORY AND RESISTANCE: Exploring a Bigger Picture
Presentation by Kooj Chuhan

· What is the framework in which we are led to understand climate change by our major institutions, businesses, policy makers and writers?

· How do ideas around race, displacement and perspectives from the global ‘South’ (including indigenous people’s movements) inform our understanding and action?

This workshop will provide an opportunity to explore the above questions as well as:

· critique of Western ways of seeing climate change
· diaspora interest in climate change
· impact on migration from the South

Venue Hulme Hall, Claremont Resource Centre, Rolls Crescent, Hulme , Manchester, M15 5FS.

The Hall is just behind Junction Pub in Hulme, next to the nursery, on 86 Bus route. One stop before Asda Hulme from town.

Time: 1 – 3.45pm
A light lunch will be provided from 12.15
For more information and to attend this event, please email:
Dave Cooke at dmcooke@btinternet.com

Financially supported by the COMMUNITY FOUNDATION FOR GREATER MANCHESTER

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NEWS FLASH: Stakeholder Conference Date Announced

Posted on January 13, 2012 by manchesterclimatemonthly

It’s official. The stakeholder conference for the Manchester: A Certain Future – the city’s climate action plan – isto be held on Friday 16th of March. The 2011 conference was delayed  and moved to coincide with Climate Week which takes place on the 12-18 March 2012. According to Steve Connor, who chairs the Steering Group charged with steering the plans into action, we shouldn’t be expected a multimedia extravaganza – not that this is the time or place for it.

The event is being hosted on a very small budget and Connor adds that they are still looking for sponsors to support the conference. So if you have a lot of money or know someone who does, you may want to pass this blog on to them. The Steering Group is also asking local organisations to get involved and host events during the week which feed into the city’s stakeholder conference. The conference will take place in the afternoon and as yet, no location has been decided although Mr Connor tells us that they will know in the next day or so.

The next Steering Group meeting is on the evening of 26th of January and will be looking at the conference, carbon metrics as well as the group’s forward plan for 2012. If like us, you would like to find out what the group has been up to in the last year,  that is going to be possible too. Although there are no minutes of the previous meetings, despite the terms of reference being clear that there should be, action points taken down will be soon posted onto their website: manchesterclimate.com

 Arwa Aburawa 
mcmonthly@gmail.com

Posted in GM Climate Strategy, Manchester City Council | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Event report: Food and the city

Posted on January 13, 2012 by manchesterclimatemonthly

Two thought-provoking presentations about food and cities formed the meat (!) of a Manchester Green Party (1) meeting yesterday evening. The monthly gathering, held at the Friends Meeting House, heard from Liz Postlethwaite about her recent trip to examine urban agriculture in Cuba, and from Chris Walsh of the Kindling Trust.

Ms Postlethwaite had spent several weeks in Cuba last November. Her presentation started by explaining the “Special Period,” the peak oil scenario Cuba faced after the collapse of the Soviet Union in the late 1980s. This led to an enforced rethink from industrial agriculture (think big tractors sailing through seas of wheat) to much more locally based – and labour-intensive – forms of food growing. Her presentation was peppered with helpful photos, quotes and statistics, including the fact that 70% of the market fresh food in Havana is grown within 10km of the city.

There was time for a question and answer session, and MCFly asked about preparations for climate change. Ms Postlethwaite pointed to decreased rainfall in some of the most fertile areas of Cuba over the last few years, and ongoing research into grain alternatives and the re-introduction of traditional tubers.

Chris Walsh of the Kindling Trust spoke about “Sustainable Food in Manchester”. After laying out some depressing statistics about Mancunians’ carbon/environmental footprints, he laid out Kindling’s positions on thorny issues such as whether local is “best” compared to “organic.”. His position is “If it’s not organic, it’s not local” – meaning that “local food” that relied on inputs of fertilizer from, say, North Africa, was not truly local.

He laid out five guidelines for making food more climate friendly:
* reduced waste
* less meat, dairy and fish (something even Nick Stern has echoed)
*organic and low carbon agriculture
*avoiding air freighted food
*more local, seasonal production

He also talked about Feeding Manchester and Manchester Veg People (see here for MCFly co-editor Arwa Aburawa’s Guardian story) and its Land Army (a topic to which MCFly shall return.)

MCFly was particularly impressed with the very first comment, from a Green Party stalwart – she observed that in her youth she had worked as an agricultural labourer to be able to afford new shoes etc, and it had been back-breaking and monotonous work. Mr Walsh agreed, and said that one of the benefits of the Land Army, besides encouraging local growers to grow more organic food, was to give them a chance to do something else with their time than weed…

As MCFly left (2) a very interesting discussion was taking place about the success of Oldham Council in the Food for Life stakes, compared to Manchester City Council’s slightly less impressive position. (Another story for us to follow up. Where are the caffeine patches again?)

As with the “No Impact Man” film showing, it is clear that – despite the media regarding climate as a dead story – there are many people in Manchester who desperately want to know more about what is going on, and how they can be involved in a growing movement to make the city greener and fairer. Manchester Climate Monthly will do what (little) it can, but it is surely up to the relevant authorities (they know who they are) to start doing what they are (un)elected to do – leading, co-ordinating, regulating and the like.

Marc Hudson
mcmonthly@gmail.com

Join the MCMonthly book reading group! First meeting Mon 6th Feb, 7pm, Waterhouse. Book: George Orwell’s Animal Farm.
Come to our Green Valentine’s Day event: “Carbon dating” 8pm till late, Sandbar, Grosvenor St.

(1) Disclaimer: The editors of MCFly are not now, and have never been, members of the … Green Party of Manchester/England and Wales/United Kingdom/Third Rock from the Sun. If other* political parties run events around environmental problems and solutions, then we’d almost certainly attend and report. (*offer excludes the BNP – they may not take kindly to Arwa’s whole Muslim thing, and neither of us take particularly kindly to racists.)

(2) My plan was to cycle to the gym and read four important publications on the stepper (the Financial Times, Viz, the Manchester Evening Newsance and Private Eye). I got caught with a flat, well how about that…

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Who can you (energy saving) trust?

Posted on January 13, 2012 by manchesterclimatemonthly

MCFly got in touch with the Energy Saving Trust Advice Centre in Manchester today following rumours that their funding was being drastically cut in March. The manager I spoke to declined to comment and informed me that the query will instead been passed on to the press office at the Energy Saving Trust and Manchester City Council. Let’s hope the EST isn’t planning to insulate themselves from press enquiries to the same high level that they insulate houses.

Anyway, we’ve heard that the centre is going to shut altogether or reduce radically in March after its funding ends. IF this is true it’s a truly worrying development for Joe and Jane Public thinking about saving on energy. Along with the recent cuts to solar panels subsidies and plans to axe Warm Front in 2013, things don’t look good for those dealing with fuel poverty. And according to the latest statistics, that’s quite a few of us as one in four English households pay 10% of more of their income on gas and electricity, making them fuel poor.

More as we get it.

Arwa Aburawa
mcmonthly@gmail.com

Posted in Energy, Manchester City Council | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Event Report: Showing of “No Impact Man”

Posted on January 12, 2012 by manchesterclimatemonthly

Thirty people gathered tonight in Didsbury to watch a documentary called “No Impact Man.” The film showing was followed by a wide-ranging and open discussion about the war (the 1939-45 one), the seductions of advertising, “what is the good life” and carbon literacy.

The film is one of a series being put on by Didsbury Film Society at St James and Emmanuel Parish Centre (behind the library). In exchange for £4.50 you get nibbles and drinks (soft drinks or wine) and the chance to mingle with people who are also interested in the sorts of films – ones about environmental issues, social justice, peace and that sort of thing – that don’t get a long run at the multiplexes. We will publicise the future events in our calendar.

Tonight’s film was about a New York writer who took his family (wife and young daughter) on a year-long odyssey of reducing (to the point of no electricity) his environmental impact. The film was good (perhaps ten minutes too long; review to follow on the MCFly website shortly) – more or less “Supersize Me” about carbon footprints. What it inspired – a conversation with most of the people who saw the fiml sat in a circle listening intently to one another. It’s this sort of thing – civil society – that needs to be nurtured and cultivated. And informed about what is being done by elected and non-elected people to create a low carbon culture. But that’s another blog post…

Marc Hudson
mcmonthly@gmail.com

UPDATE: The next two films are
Weds 7th March ‘The Garden’. See http://documentaries.about.com/od/revie2/fr/theGarden.htm
Weds 2nd May The Economics of Happiness. See www.theeconomicsofhappiness.org/

Posted in Event reports, inspire | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Job Alert: Freelance Domestic Energy Officers

Posted on January 11, 2012 by manchesterclimatemonthly

Action for Sustainable Living is looking for self-motivated Freelance Domestic Energy Officers to deliver its Domestic Energy Programme in partnership with Housing Associations from Feb 2012 to Sept 2013.
It involves delivering daytime and evening training-the-trainer sessions to Housing Association staff and tenants on home energy awareness and behavioural change in the Trafford area.

Freelance Domestic Energy Training Co-ordinator @ £15 per hour post
The role will include office-based co-ordination of freelance co-ordinators, tenant training and support, work in the community to engage and recruit tenant champions, and co-deliver housing association staff and tenant domestic energy training. Co-ordination will be required of up to 480 hours from mid-Feb 2012 – Sept 2013, deployed flexibly to meet the needs of the programme.

Freelance Domestic Energy Trainers @ £13.125 per hour 3 posts
Up to 3 Domestic Energy Trainers are wanted to join our freelance team to co-deliver housing association staff and tenant domestic energy training.
Work may also include engagement, recruitment and support of tenant
champions. The training available will include daytime, evening and weekend sessions with trainers being booked according to availability.

Interested? For a full job pack please visit: http://afsl.org.uk/EA-recruitment or email joba@afsl.org.uk
Closing date for applications is 9am Mon 23rd January 2012.
Interviews will be held on Thursday 26th January 2012.

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INTERVIEW: John Ashcroft and Manchester’s bid for the Green Investment Bank

Posted on January 10, 2012 by manchesterclimatemonthly

MCFly met up with John Ashcroft, the man leading Manchester’s bid to host the Green Investment Bank, to talk about the rainy city’s chances and whether it can see off competition from London

Manchester is one of over twenty cities which has made an official bid to host the Green Investment Bank (GIB) which will be government-funded to the tune of £3 billion. The bank is expected to funnel £15 billion of private finance into green projects over four years and employ up to 70 members of staff. Its main areas of work will be offshore wind, energy from waste, waste processing/recycling, non-domestic energy efficiency and supporting the Green Deal. The final decision on which city gets the bank will be made by Vince Cable, aided by an advisory panel, this February and the bank will be launched April 2012.

MCFly: Why do you want the Green Investment Bank to come to Manchester and what do you think will be the major benefits for the city?

Ashcroft: We see the Green Investment Bank as a key part of the low carbon agenda and we really want to be a success. We believe that the best to ensure that success is here in Manchester.

I think from a Manchester perspective we see three levels of benefits. Firstly, there is the installation cost of having the bank here which will bring in revenue in terms of rents rates and services – so there is a direct benefit in that respect. It will also bring 52,000 [UPDATE: should read “50 to 70” – transcription error on MCFly’s part]  new jobs into Manchester which would be quite key and will mean new high profile jobs in the city. Thirdly, is the spin-off from 3 billion investment programme which could well spiral into 200 or 400 billion. So there are enormous benefits to the city and we also believe that we are the best place to guarantee its success.

MCFly: The government set out three criteria that each city or area making a bid had to fulfill. These are 1) the ability to recruit and retain staff with the necessary specialist expertise 2) presence of a specialist businesses ecosystem and 3) cost effectiveness. Do you feel Manchester meets these criteria?

Ashcroft: Manchester is well-placed both nationally as and regionally as well as internationally due to Manchester Airport to be able to make the most of the Green Investment Bank. In terms of the strength of the financial sector, we’ve got the strongest financial services sector outside of London, we have enormous private equity groups so in terms of the local ecosystem to support the Green Investment Bank, Manchester does very well. Another strength is that Manchester has quite a compact economy.

MCFly: London is clearly quite a serious contender due to the fact that it is already a strong financial hub. Can Manchester compete with the capital city?

Ashcroft: Based on the three criteria, I think Manchester can compete very well against London. And in terms of economics, Manchester offers a very compact economic solution which takes London out of the equation. But let’s face it, there are 22 cities and places which are competing for the Green Investment Bank so it’s a hot topic and there is a lot of interest from all types of places. You have interest from place like Scotland, Wales, Cardiff and Peterborough but nevertheless we feel that on all the criteria, Manchester comes on top in pretty much all of them.

MCFly: I understand that Manchester is offering low rates of rent to show the cost effectiveness of hosting the bank in the city. Is Manchester doing anything else to make sure its bid is successful?

Ashcroft: Technically, we didn’t lower the rents. There were some misquotes relating to how much it would cost to bring the Green Investment Bank to Manchester and so we want to say that you could bring in big banking projects and investment into the heart in Manchester, into Spinningfields which could be the equivalent of London’s Canary Wharf let’s say, and you could do that for less than £20 per square foot. It’s not that we are giving cut price deals, we are just offering attractive market rates which demonstrate how well Manchester competes with any other city in the UK.

MCFly: A blip saw Manchester’s Green Investment Bank website accidentally appear with text from the Leeds’ bid for the Bank. Do you think this may have damaged your campaign?

Ashcroft: There was no issue with regards to our website. I mean, we had a website under development through December and our final site was launched successfully. There was no issue as far as we were concerned- it was a blip, a fleeting moment which nobody saw apart from one journalist. It was a drop for 30 seconds and it was supposed to have lorem ipsom and latin text up there. If you look at the website now, it shows what we’ve been doing and the enormous commitment from key players from Manchester. All the big players have pulled together to support this bid and have committed to video content which is great. We are very proud of our website and the finished product.

MCFly: The Green Investment Bank won’t have full borrowing powers until 2016 at the earliest. Friends of the Earth have said that in order to avoid being a lame duck bank, GIB must be able to undertake independent borrowing from capital markets. Will this be a problem if the bank comes to Manchester?

Ashcroft: There are many ways that the fund can be amplified whether its through leverage borrowing or join venturing with partners. There are lots of ways that the issue of borrowing can be dealt with.

MCFly: The decision on which city will be chosen to host the Green Investment Bank is due in February 2012. What will happen between now and when the decision is made?

Ashcroft: We’re currently working with our parlimentary group of MP’s to make sure that they are fully briefed and we are going to be deciding with them over the coming week what the programme will be that we taking to the House of Commons.

The key date is the 30th of January as documents have to be submitted by then and all our attention is focused on getting the final document together. In fact, we had a meeting just today to look at that and that document has to be submitted by 5pm on the 30th. After that, the the decision will take place pretty quickly we think and we expect a decision in February some time.

MCFly: As you mentioned before, there is a lot of competition to host the Green Investment Bank. What happens if Manchester isn’t chosen? Will the city still be able to take advantage of the opportunities it provides?

Ashcroft: We want the Green Investment Bank to be a success and we believe that the best place for it to succeed is in Manchester. We will be demonstrating the strengths of Manchester as a location for inwards investment and indeed for any financial banking proposition. However, the green investment agenda is enormous and the 3 billion kickstarter for the bank is essentially backing up what could be a 400 billion investment programme in terms of energy loans. It’s going to be a key component of the economy and so, yes, there will be benefits for everyone even if it is based in Manchester. There will be spin-offs nationally.

:: Green Bank Manchester.
:: John Ashcroft is the chief executive at pro.manchester which is a professional services group.

Arwa Aburawa
mcmonthly@gmail.com

Posted in Energy, GM Climate Strategy, Manchester City Council | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Climate Change education in Manchester’s schools

Posted on January 9, 2012 by manchesterclimatemonthly

MCFly asked Raichael Locke, of Manchester Environment Education Network, to write about some of the work MEEN is doing.

Since May Manchester Environmental Education Network (MEEN) has been working alongside Manchester’s schools helping them to develop a greater understanding of Climate Change. The aim of the programme is to help all of us, adults and young people, learn more about Climate Change, save greenhouse gases, energy and money, whilst helping secure a future for the planet.

The project began with research asking young people what they already knew about the issue. Just under half of the participants had heard of Climate Change, a good number, considering the sample included a number of very young pupils.

However, extreme weather and the hole in the ozone layer were cited as causes, with only 6% of the total mentioning that certain gases in the atmosphere were trapping heat. (By removing the pupils who represent the lower age range this does however, rise to 12%). It’s also fair to say that many of the teachers from the Primary schools were not very confident in their understanding of Climate Change and were keen to explore the agenda.

This research helped inform the programme to focus on the basic science and the need to generate action, particularly with young people who want the opportunity to have a positive impact on the world. It also seemed important that, for the programme to have relevance, it should link to other school programmes such as Eco Schools and Switch-Off Fortnight. With the help of Manchester’s Energy Management Unit, it was exciting to evidence that during Switch-Off Fortnight Old Moat Primary saved 6% on their electricity bills whilst Haveley Hey Primary managed to save a huge 15%.

Heald Place Primary and Armitage Primary schools also showed their support for the project by helping design the logo for the programme which is a beautiful champions’ trophy, coloured to look like the Earth, with the Sun being held in the cup.

As a key part of the programme MEEN has been delivering Climate Change Champion training. In November this was run with support from pupils from Armitage Primary. Two pupils gave a presentation on their work as energy monitors who, day in and day out, visit each classroom and record what electrical items have been left on and give the classes points according to their performance with the winning class being awarded each week.

MEEN has also visited numerous Eco Committees and School Councils and, when requested, delivered in-school staff training. (See the picture of staff at St Wifrid’s Primary re-creating a diagram illustrating the basic science of Climate Change.) The aim is also to facilitate peer learning by encouraging Eco Committees to visit other schools to share their activities, and to generate links between schools and businesses who are both working on the Climate Change agenda, the aim being that they can share good practice and support each others’ learning.

Many of Manchester’s communities have little knowledge of ‘Manchester: a Certain Future,’ which is the City’s pledge to reduce our Carbon Footprint. This programme aims to get people excited and active around this key objective and, with schools generating some 35% of the City Council’s CO2, they have a huge opportunity to help and the knowledge and experience to make it a fun and informative journey.

For more information about becoming a Climate Change Champion, whether you are a young person, parent, business or interested individual, please contact Raichael Lock at MEEN on 0161 273 8881, 07505 172 335 or email coordinator@meen.org.uk. The current phase of the programme will run until the end of March.

Posted in education | Tagged , | 2 Comments

MCFly Climate bulletin #9, Jan 9 2012

Posted on January 9, 2012 by manchesterclimatemonthly

Hi all,

The first Manchester Climate Monthly (dead tree format) hit the streets last week. Feedback is very welcome… And you can deliver it face-to-face if you like. We will be at Nexus Art Cafe, Dale St, in the Northern Quarter from 3.30pm on Sunday 15th January, if you want to come have a chat, tell us what you think of MCFly, maybe even get involved…

Please encourage your climate-concerned friends to take out a (free!!) subscription – via our subscribe page. Here’s a 40 second video explaining the top ten reasons folks should subscribe…
And follow us on twitter (@mcr_climate).

Coming up this week
On Tuesday a committee of councillors will approve the Biodiversity Action Plan. On Wednesday evening there’s a film showing in Chorlton of “No Impact Man” (see MCFly calendar for details)
Friday 13th may decide whether the solar feed-in tarriff gets uncut or not… (Business Green)

MCFly stories you may have missed
Off to a Flying Start #2 – the Council’s flying habits…
Keeping up with bee-keeping, a piece by our new volunteer Roisin Weintraub

New and updated pages on our website
Our jobs pages – we have simple and quick, complex and quick, simple and lengthy and complex and lengthy jobs all waiting for volunteers…

Lessons we like to believe we’ve learnt this week
Read through the print edition thoroughly. Have you conflated/failed to edit out questions, leaving someone who doesn’t want to acknowledge a whole bunch of very awkward questions an opportunity for synthetic outrage? If so, shame on you.

Grab the money and run
If you can make a mobile phone app, the World Bank may have some money for you… (see our post from Sunday 8th)

Submissions are sought for a new book about climate and race/class/gender

See also our non-MCFly competitions page

Local and Regional News
Jan 5 According to Insider “Sustainable energy company ENER-G has secured a £30m funding line to help finance its international expansion. The deal with Barclays Corporate includes a £15m term loan and a £15m revolving credit facility.”

National News
Jan 3 Old bangers (and we don’t just mean certain MCFly readers) are going to be charged £100 a day for coming into London’s Congestion Charging zone, if they don’t clean up their acts.

Global News
Douglas Fischer of the Daily Climate reports that “Media coverage of climate change continued to tumble in 2011, declining roughly 20 percent from 2010′s levels and nearly 42 percent from 2009′s peak, according to analysis of DailyClimate.org’s archive of global media.”

Reading
An (non-denialist) American conservative’s take on climate change

Carbon Emissions? Boo, hiss!! Energy Savings Trust blog on panto and energy saving…

George Monbiot on the Durban climate talks

Cities Journal, Vol 28, Issue 6 is all about low carbon cities

‘Having a choice’ plays a critical role within processes of adjustment and change. It involves the assessment and judgement of different options, and the skills necessary to make a decision among alternatives that have a positive value. Thus, choices have profound implications in the ability of individuals, communities and even nations to cope with and adapt to the impacts of climate change.
This new post argues that the severity of climatic impacts is posing the need to re-think the way in which alternative courses of action
can be created, fostered and implemented in order to reduce vulnerability, particularly within developing contexts.
Given the widespread diffusion and use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) such as mobile phones, radio and Internet-based applications, the post argues that these tools could be changing the way in which choices emerge and are implemented within vulnerable contexts affected by climate change. Practical examples are provided, and the potential of ICTs is explored in three key areas:
enabling choices, exploring and evaluating choices, and enacting
choices.
To read more and to comment please visit:
http://niccd.wordpress.com/

The deeply disturbing Bank of Natural Capital

Watching
Brilliant (as ever) Climate Denial Crock of the Week by Peter Sinclair

Apology
It seems like apologies are in order. One will definitely happen, because it’s coming from MCFly. The other(s)? Well, we’ll see, won’t we?

In our first print edition, Jan 2012 we stated, among other things, that we had asked the Steering Group for an explanation for the cancellation of the 2011 “annual” stakeholder conference and not had a reply. As readers of the blog these last two months will have known, this was false. We have indeed had the official line that it was a better fit for Climate Week 2012 (coming sooner than you think, btw). Our specific statement was wrong, and our responsibility, and we are aware that many people will not have read our previous blog posts, or indeed have heard of the Steering Group before our article (not that this is our fault). We note that our offending article also stated that we have asked repeatedly about the upcoming (?) “annual” stakeholder conference (the one that should have been held in 2011) and received no answers. That statement was not challenged, because it, um, was true.

The Steering Group can have a print apology when apologies for the following appear on the manchesterclimate.com website;
1) Failing to consult stakeholders about cancelling what is, after all, their conference in 2011.
2) Failing to make an official announcement on their website about the cancellation of the 2011 conference.
3) Failing to put up any details about the outcomes of the 2010 conference on the official manchesterclimate.com website or in fact have more than 5 or 6 posts on the site through an entire year.
4) Failing to contact the MCFly reader who stated that he had asked to attend the 2010 conference and had never heard back to a) apologise and b) investigate it so it doesn’t happen again.
5) Failing to publish minutes of its meetings on its website – a commitment under its Terms of Reference. Incidentally, we are STILL waitng for the “action points”, despite having asked for them repeatedly.
6) Failing to KEEP any minutes of its meetings, in flagrant and extraordinary breach of its Terms of Referenece and of basic common sense.
7) Cancelling elections to the Stakeholder Steering Group.
8) Failing to set up any “devil’s advocate” sub-group to challenge the convenient belief that it would be incredibly difficult to hold elections.
9) Failing to set up any “devil’s advocate” sub-group to look at how cancelling elections – the sort of thing that Stalinists are fond of doing – might be a bit well, Stalinist.
10) Failing to publicise the opportunity to join the Stakeholder Steering Group more broadly
(We could go on – at length – but ten is a nice round number)

Not quite so Scary Science
Prof David Archer has crunched the numbers and thinks that the methane in the “perma”frost won’t kill us. No, that privilege will be left to the garden variety carbon dioxide we’re emitting…

Posted in Weekly bulletins | 2 Comments

Geek alert: “Apps for Climate” competition – 15 grand (US) to be won…

Posted on January 8, 2012 by manchesterclimatemonthly

This came our way –

“We wish to invite you to participate in the World Bank’s Apps For Climate competition. The World Bank launched Apps For Climate at Durban as part of its Open Climate Data Initiative, which aims to make it easier to access and use climate information from various sources, including the Bank’s open data catalog. The competition encourages scientists, software developers, development practitioners and others to create applications (for instance, websites, mobile apps, Facebook apps, etc) that leverage open data to help address climate challenges in some way.

Apps For Climate is open to individuals, teams, and organizations. Winners will receive cash prizes (first prize is $15,000 USD) and have their application featured by the World Bank. The submission deadline is March 16th, 2012, and winners will be announced in June.

If you or your colleagues are interested, we would appreciate your help in spreading the word! Please don’t hesitate to contact me if you have questions. More information, including criteria, official rules, and updates is available at http://worldbank.org/appsforclimate or on Twitter at #app4climate. A schedule of upcoming informational events will be posted soon.

Warm regards,

Tim Herzog
Open Data Specialist
World Bank Group
therzog1@worldbank.org”

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