A conference at Shrewsbury Town Football Club on Saturday 18 May will bring people together to inspire and stimulate them to act within their communities to address the urgent changes required to bring about net zero.

“The challenges are immense,” said Colin Preston of Zero Carbon Shropshire, one of the event organisers. “Carbon emissions in the Shropshire Council area are currently 2.5 million tonnes per year, we need to get this down to 1 million tonnes by 2030. In the Telford & Wrekin area emissions are 1 million tonnes per year and this needs to come down to 0.5 million tonnes by 2030.”

Young people, who stand to be most affected by the consequences of climate change, will take a leading part in running the conference, including participants from Shropshire Wildlife Trust’s Environmental Leadership Programme for 18 – 25 year-olds. 

“Our young leaders are passionate about finding new and different ways to do things and making change that starts in communities. As well as being a great opportunity for them to meet and create connections with organisations working towards the same goals in the county, they will be helping to draw out key actions that will be taken by communities going forward from this day,” said Jen Allerton, Youth Engagement Officer at Shropshire Wildlife Trust.

During the morning there will be a series of short talks. First up will be Dr Sam Hampton, a climate behaviour expert from Bath University, who will talk about the power of individuals to influence the political agenda and make lifestyle choices that drive down emissions when action is taken collectively, helping to keep the global temperature rise within safe limits.

Other speakers will focus on the particular challenges faced by different sectors including land, nature, food and farming; transport, energy and housing and the circular economy.

The afternoon will bring people together into workshops to explore and share skills and knowledge with the aim of encouraging public engagement and collaboration.

Tickets available now

The conference is open to individuals, groups and businesses. Tickets can be booked at Eventbrite with the option either to make a donation or for free tickets. Lunch is provided. 

Environmental groups and small businesses are invited to take out a stand at the conference for a small fee.  To register an interest in this please complete the online form.

The event is being organised by Zero Carbon Shropshire, South Shropshire Climate Action and Save Our Shropshire and sponsored by Shropshire Homes and Kier.

“As a company which has implemented its own green initiative, Shropshire Homes is pleased to support the Climate Conference. We believe it is an important event to encourage the county’s organisations to work together to make a real difference to climate change in Shropshire and the wider area,” said Rebecca Hayward.