In March, CAN had training from expert Carbon Literacy trainer/consultant Safia Griffin to grow our understanding of climate change and CAN can shrink its carbon footprint further.
Our Chair of Directors, Denis Skelton, and Vice-Chair, Lesa Dryburgh; our two new Assistant Creative Producers, Mandla and Mashresha Wondmu, who are working on this June’s Horizons Festival; and freelance artists Emmanuela Yogolelo and Sarah Yaseen attended the training session.
CAN is committed to playing our part in achieving the UN’s climate goals and the aim of 2022’s COP 27 international conference to reduce carbon emissions by 45% by 2030, compared to 2010 levels, to meet the central Paris Agreement Goal of limiting temperature rise to well below two degrees Celsius by the end of this century.
Nearer to home, we’re part of various working groups, including the Manchester Climate Change Agency, and projects to help Manchester City Council achieve its target of becoming a zero-carbon city by 2038 at the latest, 12 years ahead of the UK Government’s 2050 target.
Although we are working hard to reduce our carbon usage, we know there’s always more we can do as part of our responsibility to the planet.
Safia shared information on how we can further reduce our carbon footprint.
Take one email. An email uses 4g of carbon dioxide; if you attach a document, it then uses 50g of carbon dioxide.
It was food for thought on how organisations like CAN might work differently and send fewer emails.
Over the next 30 years, 143 million people are likely to be uprooted by rising seas, drought, searing temperatures and other climate catastrophes, according to the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Report published in 2022.
In the training session, we discussed climate justice, particularly as much of our creative work is with communities with their roots in the Global South. Countries in the Global South will disproportionately experience the impacts of climate change.
Following on from the success of the Kámoši Performing Arts Group for children in Leigh – in the borough of Wigan – and events in Oldham Libraries with partner organisation Crossing Footprints that amplified the voices of communities less heard in the climate change debate, some of our creative programme in 2023 will explore climate justice.
More information soon!
