East Lothian Climate Action Network officially launched

ELCAN launched on October 5 at the Fraser Centre, Tranent, and brought together a number of local groups, including Volunteer Centre East Lothian, Sustaining Dunbar, Tranent Wombles and Friends of the Earth East Lothian.

Organisations gave presentations on the work they do in the county and how they hope to continue to fight climate change, before discussing the issues in small groups.

Among those in attendance were Councillor John McMillan, East Lothian provost; Hanna Lundstrom, the council’s sustainability and climate change officer; Douglas Proudfoot, the council’s executive director of place; and Councillor Shona McIntosh (Scottish Greens), who delivered the closing remarks.

Groups in attendance broke into break out groups to discuss their work

Speaking after the launch, Councillor McIntosh said: “When you get local groups all coming together to tackle an issue like climate change you get that reassurance that those local groups are then going to the wider world and spreading that message further.

“It was great to hear from all the different groups and I think they will be able to learn from one another too, to find out what other groups have done well or not so well and improve on that.

“Every action, regardless of how big or small, has a ripple effect and a climate action network is certainly a good thing for East Lothian and for the country.”

Ian Malcolm, event co-ordinator and member of Climate Friendly Aberlady, gave the opening speech of the evening, when he welcomed each group to the event and praised East Lothian for its community spirit and compassion.

Ian Malcolm, Climate Action Network co-ordinator, gave the opening speech of the launch

He told the Courier: “The evening went really well. It was great to hear from all the different groups about what they are doing to fight climate change.

“The main purpose of this launch was to introduce some of the members and start to get an understanding of what a united East Lothian climate action network hub will look like.

“I’ll look to analyse the event and that will help us to set out roles within the network and get an understanding of what our key objectives will be going forward.

“The aim of this group for the most part will be for the groups to help each other out, to offer advice and support and also to help each other grow and expand into other areas of East Lothian.

“Having such a large group will allow us to play to our strengths.

“Some people have more natural public speaking talents or are more business minded than others, so bringing together these people will help us find roles in the network that best suit our talents.

“We’d like to organise themed events in the future too.”