Written by Dr Adrian Cooper, Felixstowe Community Nature Reserve – NBN Trust member
This article summarises the role of Felixstowe’s Citizen Science Group (FCSG) in the development of local strategy in support of climate justice in our local area of east Suffolk.
On 2 July 2022, Felixstowe’s Community Nature Reserve (FCNR) organised a climate justice march. It was the first climate justice march in our local area. The aim of the march was to raise the profile of clearly defined climate justice activities in which local people can participate.
This short, three-minute film summarises the first six climate justice solutions which are being promoted by Felixstowe’s Community Nature Reserve.
The climate justice solutions
One of the main climate justice solutions was to recommend the installation of PV panels on the roofs of local housing, public buildings and commercial premises. FCSG supplied data from a network of nine sets of PV panels which had been installed in the Felixstowe area in July 2011. Data was collected through Bluetooth Sunny Beam wireless recorders. FCSG was therefore able to supply convincing real-time data in support of the use of PV panels to FCNR for use in social media, print media and public discussion.
The PV panel data which FCSG collected showed that each panel has saved almost 68,000 lb (30.8 tonnes) of CO2 since installation (as at 14 October 2022). FCSG also showed that the average total revenue for each PV panel since installation was almost £19,000. This data therefore showed local people that PV panels hold environmental and financial incentives as a significant contribution toward climate justice strategy.
In November 2022, Felixstowe’s citizen scientists published a forecast of how financial income from local PV panels might grow over the next five years. That is, the forecast reinforced the possible role which PV panels can play in local climate justice strategy.
The second stage of FCNR’s climate justice work included the advocacy of electric and hybrid cars for domestic use. FCSG chose a case study vehicle to analyse in detail: the Hyundai Tuscon 1.6 TGDi Hybrid 230. With that case study vehicle, Felixstowe’s citizen scientists found that it can achieve 59 miles per gallon (ie 20.88 kilometres per litre). FCSG also noted that this Tuscon vehicle can achieve 65 miles per hour (106.6 km per hour) while running purely on the electric part of the hybrid engine. At the time of writing, Felixstowe’s citizen scientists continue to collect further data in support of the hybrid technology’s role in local climate justice strategy.
Felixstowe’s citizen scientists are also collecting data in support of smart metering. Their case study technology is the EOn smart meter. It was chosen for its clarity of data and ease of reading. Again, early data collection continues at the time of writing.
Conclusion
The main conclusion to draw from this article is to show that locally based citizen scientists can have a fundamentally important role within the development of climate justice strategy and solutions. That role includes opportunities for data collection, data analysis and data visualisation. It is hoped that this article will encourage other groups of citizen scientists to also get involved with the development of climate justice strategy in their local communities.
Further information
Felixstowe’s Citizen Science Group, Facebook page
Felixstowe’s Community Nature Reserve, Facebook page
Other links to the work of Felixstowe’s Community Nature Reserve include the following:
https://www.wildeast.co.uk/urban-greening-felixstowe-community-nature-reserve
https://www.wildeast.co.uk/urban-greening-joined-up-gardening
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Felixstowe Community Nature Reserve is an NBN Trust member and regularly shares news of its work and projects through the NBN Trust website and Network News. Why not join the NBN Trust and share your own information and news stories to a highly engaged audience? Find out more and join us in our mission to make data work for nature – today!