Hi everyone – I’m Julia, the Policy and Advocacy Manager here at mySociety. You might have heard me mentioned around these parts before, but I’m happy to be clocking in to deliver my first monthnotes! September was a typically busy ‘back to school’ type month for us, with lots of progress on our existing projects, and some of our work in the news.
Last week, I was delighted to attend the launch of Chris Skidmore MP’s new Local Mission Zero report launch, as many of our fragmented data recommendations were accepted into the report. We think that a few tweaks to the way that existing climate data is published will really improve the data ecosystem for everyone – and we’re delighted the Net Zero Local Coalition took forward our suggestions.
Much of this month has been dominated by preparing for the launch of the 2023 Climate Action Scorecards. These follow on from the previous scorecards that were looking at local authorities’ climate plans, with this round of scorecards focusing on what actions councils are actually delivering on climate. Ahead of the launch next month, Climate Emergency UK released the Freedom of Information requests that went into answering many of the questions behind this years’ scorecards. Alex wrote a great blog post about how our WhatDoTheyKnow Projects Tool allowed CE UK’s team of volunteers to conduct a nationwide survey of every council, and the new findings about EPC results were covered by the Financial Times [paywalled].
If you’re interested in your council’s track record on climate action, you’ll be pleased to hear that Alex added a load of brilliant new updates to CAPE this month. If you have a look around, you’ll find improvements to the search function using machine learning, updates for the new local councils, local polling data on attitudes to net zero, and reports from Climate Assemblies in the relevant authority areas. Once you’ve had a chance to experiment, don’t forget to tell us what you think.
We’re not always sat behind our laptops, we promise! At the start of the month, Zarino went down to Keele to speak at the Wildlife Trusts conference about our plans for the Local Intelligence Hub, and how campaigners use our other services, such as WriteToThem and TheyWorkForYou. If you’re ever looking for inspiration, or a new tactic to add to your campaigning portfolio, our wonderful Marketing & Comms Manager, Myf, keeps our blog up-to-date with wonderful case studies such as this one about a community campaign to save local trees in Plymouth. Last but not least, in case you missed it, last week Siôn published a new dedicated monthnotes for Neighbourhood Warmth.
Photo by Jacqueline O’Gara on Unsplash