Liverpool Named World’s First ‘Accelerator City’ for Climate Action by UN Climate Change
The City of Liverpool in northwest England has become the world’s first ‘Accelerator City’ for climate action, under UN Climate Change’s Entertainment and Culture for Climate Action (ECCA) programme.
The title comes in recognition of Liverpool’s impressive commitment to innovation and smart regulation to rapidly decarbonise the live music and TV/Film production sectors – both vital parts of the city’s economy – following several years of developmental work by ACT 1.5, an artist-led research and action effort, and climate scientists from the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research.
As an ’Accelerator City’, Liverpool will expand on this use of policy, technology, infrastructure, and transport practices to pilot and then embed decarbonisation methods into the fabric of the city, extending the scope of this work to include national film and television institutions; establishing cross-sectoral solutions with clean, green providers and sustainability-focused event & onscreen producers.
Read more on the UNFCCC website.
New report highlights impact of air pollution
The Chartered Institute of Environmental Health (CIEH) has joined calls for air pollution to be recognised as a key public health issue, after a new report from doctors revealed dirty air is killing more than 500 people a week.
The Royal College of Physicians ‘A breath of fresh air’ report says the links between air pollution and health are ‘undeniable’ and that air quality must be recognised as a public health issue, rather than a solely environmental one.
Among the shocking headlines revealed in the report are that the equivalent of 30,000 deaths are estimated to be attributed to air pollution in 2025 and the health impacts of air pollution are estimated to have an economic cost of £27 billion annually in the UK in 2019, and may be as much as £50 billion when wider impacts, such as dementia, are accounted for.
The report sets out 19 recommendations aimed at national, regional and local governments across the UK, industry, regulators, the NHS, clinicians and individuals in society.
For more on the report visit the HSM website.
Building firm fined after house collapse injures four
A London construction company has been fined £50,000 after four men were injured – two seriously – when the first floor of a house collapsed during building works.
Aryn Stones Ltd had been contracted to build a new domestic property in Hampstead. On 31 May 2022, remedial works were being carried out on a partially built beam-and-block floor, when it collapsed, taking two of the workers down with it.
The two men include a welder, who is now 62, and a 31-year-old bricklayer. They both sustained life-changing injuries, while two other men who were standing at ground level were injured by falling concrete.
Learn more on the HSE website.
Family tragedies behind asbestos removal campaign
A man who lost four family members to asbestos-related cancer has backed an MP’s campaign to have the potentially deadly material removed from all public buildings.
South Shields Labour MP Emma Lewell used a Commons debate to press the government to create a register of UK buildings containing asbestos and plan for its removal.
Her grandad John Henry Richardson died in 1998 from asbestosis – a hardening of the lungs – after working in the area’s shipyards, while her constituency has one of the country’s highest death rates from contact with the material.
Raymond Turnbull, from Washington, supported Lewell’s call with the plea: “We’ve got to really get it out there how dangerous it is.”
Mr Turnbull has seen asbestos take a terrible toll on his family.
His mother died from mesothelioma in 1979, aged 72, and his brother and uncle also succumbed to the same cancer.
All three worked at the now closed Turner and Newall factory in Washington which made products containing asbestos.
Visit the BBC website to read more.
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