Terms of Reference

This is the document setting out what we've agreed as the basis for CANN's activities. We expect to fine-tune it over time as new members bring different insights and we become more established. This is the July 2006 version.

Who we are:

Climate Action Network Nottinghamshire (CANN) is an alliance of groups working together to combat climate change.

CANN is a coalition of local voluntary and community organisations - environment and development groups, faith groups, humanitarian organisations, women's groups, trade unions and others, working together to achieve more effective action on climate change.

What we'll do:

1. Communicate, information-share and provide mutual support across the Network.
2. Promote and encourage behaviour changes by individuals and organisations across all sectors of the community to help combat climate change.
3. Influence local, national and international decision makers to take more effective action on climate change.
4. Highlight the importance of the links between local and global actions and impacts.
5. Raise awareness of the effects that climate change will have upon both people and the planet; and in particular upon the poorest communities.

We will achieve this by:

• Developing and maintaining the network, and building partnerships.
• Being a point of contact to provide and communicate information, expertise and good practice to individuals and organisations across all sectors of the community
• Raising awareness to increase understanding of the impacts of climate change and the positive solutions that are available.
• Lobbying decision makers.
• Producing information materials.
• Organising events.
• Seeking media coverage.

Why we are doing this:

Stop Climate Chaos is a coalition of around 30 organisations working nationally on climate change. We broadly endorse the Stop Climate Chaos Statement:

"Without urgent action, climate change will devastate life on earth. Hundreds of millions of people, particularly the worlds poorest and most vulnerable, will be put at severe risk of drought, floods, starvation, and disease. By the middle of the century up to one third of land-based species could face extinction. 

"Politicians have so far failed to take sufficient action to avoid this. Yet the choices made in the next five to ten years will determine the extent of the devastation faced by future generations. We can save millions of lives and a multitude of species by keeping the average global temperature increase under 2°C. To achieve this, global greenhouse gas emissions must peak and be falling irreversibly by 2015.

"High emitting countries, with their responsibility for historic emissions, must reduce their emissions to make certain that this goal is achieved. But because all countries share the obligation to ensure that damaging global warming is permanently avoided, each must commit to policies to guarantee that global greenhouse gas emissions decline beyond 2015.

"Before this decade is out, world leaders must have lived up to their duty to prevent catastrophic climate change, via open transparent and accountable mechanisms, processes that promote global, social and economic justice and through the use of environmentally sustainable technologies. We will act to ensure that they do."

Ways of Working

CANN is an independent body that is not aligned with political parties, corporate bodies or local government.

We are a coalition of groups with an ad hoc steering group. CANN maintains a Steering Group made up of individuals from a variety of groups and organisations in Nottinghamshire, which meets regularly to make decisions for the group.