The seven projects across the West Midlands region have been chosen to help change people’s attitudes in favour of tackling climate change.

 

In the West Midlands region the winners are:

 

• The Big Brum Theatre in Education Company, based in Castle Vale, Birmingham will use theatre in education to develop understanding of climate change in infant school pupils and their parents and teachers.  Funding £13,355.

 

 

• Castle Vale Community Housing Association, in partnership with Castle Vale Community Environmental Trust and Birmingham Sustainable Energy Partnership, will be running an advertising campaign focussing on Castle Vale to change attitudes towards the causes of climate change and what local residents can do to change attitudes and behaviour. The campaign will relate to local residents and will link to what happens in the wider world.  Funding £16,100

 

• Hereford-based, The Rural Media Company, in partnership with Marches Energy Agency and Flicks in the Sticks, will make a Cinema Short which will be shown before screenings by ‘Flicks in the Sticks’ – who screen films in rural venues and village halls. The film will seek to highlight key rural attitudes towards climate change in the English Marches.  Funding £42,000

 

• The Cool City project by Stoke City Council will seek to unite the local population, especially those aged between 25 and 44, to tackle climate change. The project will include using a website giving up to date information and a blog featuring a fictional person’s day to day life introducing climate change issues through casual discussion.  Funding £98,720

 

• Tide~  [teachers in development education] is a network of teachers across the West Midlands.  It is a registered charity operating out of Millennium Point in Birmingham. Tide~ will design a core package of materials to help teachers increase their own understanding of climate change issues and create material to support schools in running student workshops. There will also be a series of key events across Birmingham to share ideas.  Funding £48,250

 

• Winterbourne Botanic Garden is part of The University of Birmingham and aims to communicate the impact of climate change in a domestic garden setting, targeting over 65’s. The garden, in Edgbaston, Birmingham, which is to receive £10,150 funding from Defra, will be used as a model to demonstrate climate change issues.  They will create interpretation panels showing what the likely impact of climate change on gardens will be. This will be followed by the creation of a domestic garden area demonstrating what can be done in the home to reduce the impact through recycling waste, rainwater storage and energy conservation. Information on combating climate change in the garden will be available in leaflets and from the Botanic Garden’s website.

 

• WMnet (West Midlands Broadband Consortium) is a consortium of all 14 local education authorities in the West Midlands region working with the other nine regional Broadband Consortia in England.  WMnet will be developing an online one-stop shop to provide UK teachers with stimulating teaching resources, activities, guidance and support materials for teaching on climate change.

The project will make it much easier for schools to develop high standards of teaching on climate change to enable schools, community and youth organisations to successfully communicate with pupils and parents.   Funding: £190,000 for the West Midlands region and an additional £160,000 for a project to cover the whole of England.

 

Across England a total of 53 projects will receive funding from Defra totalling £4.6m over the next two years to form part of an innovative new approach aimed at raising awareness of the urgent need to tackle climate change. The projects are committed to communicating climate change at regional and grass-roots level across the nine regions of England.

 

Mr Pearson said that the solution to climate change was in the hands of everyone – businesses, citizens and consumers:

 

“We are trying through this new and innovative Fund to reach audiences who have not yet understood or accepted that climate change presents a real challenge requiring immediate action to tackle it.”

 

Environment Secretary David Miliband highlighted the importance of developing new and innovative ways of tackling the greatest environment challenge we face. He said he was pleased with the number, variety and quality of the applications received.

 

“Climate change affects all of us and I believe that today’s successful projects will reach new audiences and communities at national, regional and local level and shift people’s opinions in favour of action to tackle climate change.

 

“Government is playing its part and giving the lead in tackling climate change. But we will not succeed without the support and active participation of all sectors of society”.

 

A further 28 projects submitted to Defra’s Climate Challenge Fund worth an additional £4m have been provisionally accepted subject to further negotiation.

 

The Climate Challenge Fund was set up to provide financial support for communications projects across a full range of media, seeking to achieve positive changes in public attitudes about climate change. Defra received more than 500 applications from across England totalling nearly £60m worth of bids.

 

NOTES TO EDITORS

 

1          The Climate Challenge Fund was launched on January 26, 2006 by former Environment Minister Elliot Morley. It is a key part of Defra’s Climate Change Communications Initiative – designed to increase awareness among the general public of the need to tackle climate change. Information about the Fund is available on the www.climatechallenge.gov.uk website.

 

2. A full list of approved projects and more details will be available at www.climatechallenge.gov.uk

 

 

 

ISSUED ON BEHALF OF DEFRA BY GNN WEST MIDLANDS.

 

 

Regional news releases issued by the Government News Network can be viewed at

http://www.gnn.gov.uk/