TDEG whole group meeting (open to all).
Tuesday 21 October 2025, 7.30pm – 9.00pm.
Fountain Square Church, Tideswell.
Phil Korbel’s presentation slides
can been seen here.
TDEG is very grateful to Phil Korbel, cofounder and director at the Carbon Literacy Project, for his dynamic talk ‘How do we futureproof Tideswell?‘. Phil gave us a whistle-stop tour of Carbon Literacy’s impressive achievements in Derbyshire, the UK and beyond. This includes 143,000 people trained in their carbon literacy programme and committed to at least 500,000 tonnes of carbon saving projects.
He shared his experience of enthusing a wide range of people and organisations to reduce greenhouse emissions by using arguments relevant to the person’s work or circumstances, focusing on just transitions and emphasizing other benefits of the project such as saving time and money. He emphasised the importance of people and place – whether this be in their place of work or a small community like ours. He defined Carbon Literacy as:
“An awareness of the carbon costs and impacts of everyday activities and the ability and motivation to reduce emissions, on an individual, community and organisational basis.”
A bright spark in the audience came up with “Fewer polar bears, more hedgehogs”, which really hit the spot!
The audience participated in discussions about both reducing carbon emissions and addressing the inevitable impacts of climate change in Tideswell and surrounding villages. We identified many priorities for our area – including housing need; reducing energy costs through the use of clean energy and insulation; supporting local trades and green skills for apprentices; addressing the needs of an aging population; supporting farmers, particularly nature-friendly farming; improving wildlife and our local waterways; and upgrading electricity and transport connections.
If you would like to help us take these discussions forward and deliver project actions in and around Tideswell, we’d love to hear from you. Email us at info@tdeg.org.uk.
