Brixton’s brand new Windrush Square will open this weekend, with celebrations on Saturday and Sunday including live music and a lantern-lit procession by local children.

The development is a part of the wider Brixton Town Centre programme, which is enhancing the local urban environment alongside upgrading the area’s roads and pavements to improve access and safety.

Creating a new focal point in the heart of Lambeth, the new town square will also be a venue for community activities and events, joining together the old square with Tate Gardens to create a single pedestrianised open space.

The square’s name was chosen in 1998 with help from local residents and businesses to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the arrival of the Empire Windrush from Jamaica on 22 June 1948 which was a landmark event in the development of our modern multicultural society.

The rejuvenated square has been built with a new fountain, improved lighting, wider crossing points and improvements such as cycle stands to encourage more people to cycle. It also features 21 new trees. Added to this there will be high quality landscaping and surfacing and sculpted granite seating, creating what will be a thriving centre for our area.

Sustainable Streatham will be screening Food, Inc. at the Streatham Odeon this evening at 8pm. The documentary, which was directed by Robert Kenner, examines the food industry in the United States and its environmental impact. Entry to the screening is priced at £5.

To find out more about Sustainable Streatham and its work, follow this link.

Our area leads the field in many ways on environmental awareness and eco-conscious living. As well as being designated an official Low Carbon Neighbourhood, the Transition Town Brixton Movement and the Brixton Green Project are helping to build the country’s first inner city model of a low-carbon future.

So it’s good to see complementary steps being taken on the national level, with the announced introduction in April of the Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC). This will introduce mandatory carbon emissions trading for all businesses and organizations who consume more than 6,000MWh per year of electricity (equivalent to an annual electricity bill of about £500,000) – meaning that organizations who manage to reduce their emissions are able to sell their excess energy on, whilst those who continue to be high consumers will bear the financial burden of having to purchase additional carbon allowances.

The scheme begins in April 2010, when organizations will have to record and report their carbon emissions over the course of the year, before purchasing their first emissions allowance based on those figures in April 2011. Initially, carbon emission allowances will be sold at the fixed price of £12 per tonne of carbon dioxide, before being subject to auction from 2013.

When the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, Ed Miliband, met Streatham residents at Lambeth Town Hall in December, he asserted the government’s commitment to the targets set in the Climate Change Bill. By incentivizing reduced energy consumption, penalizing organizations who do not reduce their emissions, and by focussing on the 5000 organizations who are the biggest consumers of energy in this country, the CRC is a crucial step towards achieving the pledged 60% emissions reduction by 2050.

The Labour Government has launched the new Boiler Scrappage Scheme – a national initiative to help families save money on fuel bills and cut their carbon emissions.

Around 125,000 households in England will be entitled to £400 towards the price of a new A-rated boiler or renewable heating system to replace their older, less environmentally-friendly boilers.

Hundreds of Streatham families with outdated boiler systems are expected to be eligible for the welcome boost, especially in the freezing weather.

The move is also designed to help sustain work in the heating industry, a major British employer.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown said the Scheme “will slash household energy bills and carbon emissions while providing an important boost for the British heating industry.

“The government’s new scrappage scheme will help to secure 250,000 jobs across the tens of thousands of small and medium businesses involved in boiler manufacture, sales and installation that form a vital component of Britain’s low carbon economy.”

Labour’s Climate Change Secretary, Ed Miliband, said: “The Boiler Scrappage Scheme will save around £200 off heating bills per year for families that are replacing their old boilers, and in total will save the same amount of carbon equivalent to taking around 45,000 cars off the road.

“The scheme will add to the existing package of government measures to help householders be smarter about the energy they use, leading to permanently reduced fuel bills and cutting emissions.”

The Boiler Scrappage Scheme is based on the same principles as the hugely successful Car Scrappage Scheme – a burst of decisive government investment designed to help both people and businesses while reducing the UK’s carbon footprint.

The Car Scrappage Scheme, introduced in May last year and extended in September, gives drivers £2,000 towards a new car if they trade in an old one.

As of December 2009, 282,898 new cars had been ordered under the Scheme, 19,150 of which were in London.

In this video, filmed after the recent Q&A with Ed Miliband MP and local people organised by Chuka at Lambeth Town Hall, Chuka talks to the Climate Change Secretary about the event and the UN conference on climate change currently taking place in Copenhagen.

This week, Secretary of State for Climate Change Ed Miliband joined Chuka and Charlie Kronick, Senior Climate Adviser to Greenpeace at Lambeth Town Hall in Brixton for a question and answer session.

After speaking of the importance of getting a global climate change deal this week at United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, he answered questions and heard the views of Brixton residents.

Ed Miliband will be one of the UK’s principal representatives, along with the Prime Minister Gordon Brown, at the Copenhagen Conference this month.

At the Conference, the crucial next stage of the UN’s climate change strategy will be discussed. More than sixty five world leaders will be in attendance including Barack Obama and Gordon Brown, who was the first leader to announce that he would attend in person.

The stakes could not be higher – the conference provides a unique opportunity to agree an effective, fair and ambitious deal for reductions in carbon emissions. The British government has stated its aim for new binding targets to prevent temperature rises.

Ed Miliband came to our area on the eve of the crucial talks to hear the views of an area which is fast becoming the Green capital of London and Britain’s first inner-city experiment in low-carbon living. As well as being designated an official Low Carbon Neighbourhood, the Transition Town Brixton Movement and the Brixton Green Project are helping to build the country’s first inner city model of a low-carbon future.

Nearby, Sustainable Streatham and the Hyde Farm Climate Action Network are having a impact in reducing our area’s carbon footprint.

At the end of the event, the Minister said he would take on board the views voiced in Brixton, particularly the strong desire for a global deal, when he goes to Copenhagen.

Sign Ed’s Pledge to help push for a global deal on climate change.  More photos of the event can be viewed here.

Sustainable Streatham (SuS) is holding its official launch this week and Chuka, a strong supporter of the group, is attending the event along with Keith Hill MP.

The group aims to make it easier for local residents and businesses to help the environment and adjust to a low carbon future. Its initial projects will include setting up a community gardening project, organising local food initiaiatives and exploring ways of reducing energy consumption.

To find out more about the group and get involved visit: http://sustainablestreatham.wordpress.com/

Chuka has signed up to the 10:10 carbon reduction campaign, committing to reduce his carbon emissions by 10% in 2010.

The 10:10 project encourages individuals and organisations to take action on climate change by reducing their carbon footprint.

It has already been taken up by 16,000 individuals in the UK and over 600 businesses since its launch earlier this month. This includes every member of the British cabinet.

Labour-run Lambeth Council has also signed up to the 10:10 pledge, having pioneered sustainable building projects such as the new Michael Tippett School which is one of the most environmentally-friendly school buildings in the country.

To find out more and make the 10:10 pledge, click here.

Chuka has signed up to Greenpeace’s airplot campaign to stop the third runway at Heathrow.

The airplot is a strip of land on the proposed site of the new runway with over 50,000 beneficial owners, which Greenpeace hopes will provide an obstacle to the expansion scheme.

A third runway at Heathrow would mean an additional 350 flights a day, making the airport the country’s single biggest CO2 emitter.

Join Chuka in becoming a beneficial owner at Greenpeace’s airplot website.

Labour-run Lambeth Council and Chuka Umunna, parliamentary candidate for Streatham, have both signed up to the 10:10 carbon reduction campaign, committing to reducing their carbon emissions by 10% in 2010.

The 10:10 project aims to encourage individuals and organisations to take action on climate change by reducing their carbon footprint. It has already been taken up by 16,000 individuals in the UK and over 600 businesses since its launch earlier this month. This includes every member of the British cabinet.

Lambeth council has pioneered sustainable building projects, such as the new Michael Tippett School which is one of the most sustainable school buildings in the country.

Chuka Umunna is a supporter of Sustainable Streatham, which works to minimise our area’s impact on the environment. Earlier this year he visited Hyde Farm Climate Action Network on Radbourne Road, which operates a successful local food-growing programme involving over 150 households.

Commenting on the campaign, Chuka Umunna said:

“Climate change presents a huge challenge to all of us, and that’s why I am making the 10:10 pledge.

“Although the government has made great strides in tackling climate change, for example with carbon budgets, individual choices are also crucial.

“10:10 allows our individual actions to have a clear, measured impact on carbon emissions. I urge others to find out more about the campaign and to sign up.”