Greens' Principal Speaker To Visit Norwich

10 April 2006 - Norwich Green Party, and visiting Green Party Principal Speaker Keith Taylor, will be at Castle Meadow on the morning of 10 April, to take part in a locally-organised event: Greens will be rewarding those taking the bus and cycling into Norwich City Centre, for playing their part in stopping climate change (with Green 'Thank you' stickers).

What Norwich City Council and citizens/residents can do to help stop climate change – which threatens to submerge large parts of East Anglia (including Carrow Road football ground) within 50 years, if unchecked – is a central theme of the Norwich Green Party Manifesto for the May 4th elections.

Dirty, Dangerous & Expensive: For real local action to stop climate change; against nuclear power

Green Principal Speaker Councillor Keith Taylor is in Norwich on 10 April also to talk with members of Norwich Green Party, as part of a national tour, "Nuclear power: Dirty, Dangerous and Expensive". He will be speaking with local Party members about nuclear power and its alternatives, including renewables that can be effectively brought in to play a much greater role in electricity and heating generation, by local Councils. Norwich Green Councillors have long argued in favour of developers having to put small-scale renewable energy generation devices into new housing developments – this policy is included in the Green Manifesto for the City elections on May 4th.

Speaking in advance of his visit to Norwich, Councillor Taylor said: "I am here to examine and promote the case for renewable energy in the context of the government's surprising enthusiasm for building a new programme of nuclear power stations. In the midst of the government's Energy Review to update its Energy White Paper 2003, with UK energy prices having just risen by nearly 25 per cent in one leap, the need for a sensible debate on our energy futures is more urgent than ever. The government’s dash to nuclear power is not the answer: just ask yourself what kind of energy policy Al Qaida would like us to have, and it becomes obvious that it is renewables, not vulnerable nuclear power, that offers the viable alternative to the world’s dwindling fossil fuel supplies."

Stop climate change; play your part

Councillor Taylor continued: "Tackling the threat to our future posed by climate change could, with the right political will, courage and imagination, be turned into an opportunity. We could, with a combination of a low-carbon innovation strategies and an aggressive expansion of energy efficiency, energy reduction and renewables, make the UK a leader in low-carbon technologies, with the resultant employment and regeneration pay-offs. I am proud to be working with the Norwich Green Councillors on this – their strong policies on this issue, and the renowned CRed programme based at UEA, make Norwich a potential beacon, in this regard. I am looking forward to meeting with Norwich residents, and asking them to play their part in stopping climate change."

Norwich Green Party Council Council candidates Janet Bearman (Town Close ward) and Howard Jago (Mancroft ward) at the event.

"By taking the bus today you are helping to make this a nicer place to live"