TWO MEMBERS of Otley 2030 and the group's sister community energy company, Otley Energy championed the town at COP26 in Glasgow last week.

Andy Boyle and Toby Putnam were invited by Leeds Climate Commission and the University of Leeds as part of an event to discuss the important role of local action and the potential to use online tools to engage with the community.

The event was organised by the Decarbon8 network which brings together business, government and universities across the UK to develop innovative solutions to the climate crisis.

Two online tools were shortlisted and discussed by a panel of experts including Andy Boyle.

One was The University of Leeds' Place-Based Carbon Calculator (https://www.carbon.place/), which has combined various sources of data to build an interactive map of the UK's carbon footprint. It allows people to explore the significant differences between carbon footprints from one neighbourhood to another, to understand why the differences exist and what can be done about them.

TThe other was the Place Standard (https://www.placestandard.scot/), which was developed by the Scottish Government as a way of engaging with communities to understand how the places we live in can be improved. It has been updated to include questions about how we can manage the increasingly negative impacts of extreme weather and ensure the journey to net-zero leads to positive impacts in our lives.

Andy said: “It was great to review these tools with an inspiring group of experts. Tools like these and the Doughnut Economics model Otley2030 is launching can play a really important role. The Place Standard is born out of the Scottish Government's commitment to wellbeing and their appreciation that communities need to be at the heart of decision-making that affects them. This is exactly the approach we're taking with our Connecting a Community project and tools like this can provide a powerful foundation for understanding what our community's priorities are and how we can work together to achieve them.”

Otley 2030's Connecting a Community project is part-funded by Otley Town Council and is developing a plan to bring the whole community into the process of designing a net-zero, inclusive and sustainable future for the town. To respond to Otley 2030’s Connecting a Community survey go to https://www.otley2030.com/get-involved

Andy said: "I'd encourage everyone to look at the interactive map on the 'Place-Based Carbon Calculator' website. It’s dramatic to see the difference between the carbon footprints of different sections of the community. Clicking on each neighbourhood shows what it is about our current lives that makes the difference. It’s a reminder that some people are struggling to afford to heat their homes, feed their families and access the facilities they need, whereas looking around the area you see some are really using up a lot of energy. Everyone faces their own challenges in doing the right thing and so we have to make it positive for people. This includes supporting businesses, councils and, in particular, national government in making the investments we need. COP26 has seen some massive steps forward but we need so much more. The good news is we met loads of inspiring groups like ours and local government representatives who, like ourselves, the other amazing groups in our town, Otley Town Council and Leeds City Council are all working to fill the gap and drive positive change.”

Visit www.otley2030.com and otleyenergy.co.uk for more details.