This Friday 3 December the Daylight Saving Bill will be voted on. The idea is that instead of changing the clocks twice a year we keep an extra hour of daylgiht in the evenings for ever rather than sunny mornings when we’re all asleep.

Will our Southwark MP’s be voting for this bill?

For this Bill to proceed 102 MPs are needed to vote this Friday and I’m hoping they’ll all be present. I can imagine how incredibly busy they are but as Southwark MP’s I’m hopeful they’ll be able to make time in your diary for this vote.

If passed into law this change will save about 80 lives a year, create 80,000 new jobs and save 500,000 tonnes of carbon every year.

If you’d like to encourage your MP to vote this Friday – and not many decisions make such an obvious difference to our lives – then email them from:

http://www.lighterlater.org/mp/write?utm_campaign=People%2BDecember%2B2010-12-01&utm_source=emailCampaign&utm_medium=email

Reading a fascinating article about work undertaken at Cambridge University adding bio-luminescence to trees.

Apparently just converting 0.02% of the energy absorbed from photosynthesis would be sufficient for a tree to produce bio light in enough quantity to compete with a regular street light.

By 2050 we need to reduce our CO2 use by 80%.

Is bio light one way of achieving this?

Which would you prefer – a genetically modified tree producing light or global warming?

I welcome a recent report from Cambridge University confirming that simply closing shop doors during the winter saves up to 50% in energy usage and carbon emissions.

The report has led to the Close the Door campaign. What a great campaign. I’ll be promoting it locally. Amazingly it really is the case that by simply closing shop doors CO2 emissions can be slashed, energy bills reduced and customers and staff left feeling more comfortable. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to realise that keeping shop doors closed during the winter months is a win-win for everyone.

Do take a look at the Close the Door campaign details which you can see here.

Which shops in East Dulwich do you think the worst offenders?

Some time ago my family and I committed to working toward the 10:10 agenda – cutting our CO2 by 10% by the end of 2010.

Our electricity over the last 12 months has gone down by from an average of 8.9kWh per day to 7.kWh per day – saving of 11.5%. All our electricity comes from Good Energy which only used renewable eletricity genereation but even so we should use less.

Next month I can work out how we’ve progress on the gas front and whether overall we’re on track to meet our 10:10 commitment.

Did you make this commitment and if so how are you doing?

My news resolution will be a personal journey of 11:11 – reducing our CO2 by 11% during 2011.

Probably the last bit of devolved Lib Dem lighting budget has now been drafted for East Dulwich ward. £50,000 worth of improvements.

We’ll allocate our funds to fixing ‘red’ lamp posts which are those lamp posts 70%+ corroded at the base. In East Dulwich ward we have eight of them.

We’ll also fund the upgrade to lighting on Crystal Palace Road, Dunstans Road and Friern Road replacing old yellow SOX lighting – really dim lighting. CPR will get SON lighting for the majority but Cosmo lights at the Lordship Lane end. SON lighting all along Dunstans Road and Cosmo on Friern Road as suggested when I consulted with local Police. SON lighting white with a tinge of yellow and is much brighter than totally yellow SOX lighting. Cosmo lighting is pure bright white light.

We’ll then have ensured all East Dulwich street lighting has been modernised.

During the last winter it was maddenning that common advice was to leave the snow on pavements for fear or being sued.

I’m chuffed to see a thawing of this fear with the government issuing a ‘Snow code’ .

This is important guidance on how communities and councils can work together to improve pavement conditions. It basically gives advice about how to clear paths sensibly. Clarity is added about the potential for litigation that everyone has a duty of care but by following sensible snow clearing practice people should have nothing to worry about.

This all comes witha little relief that a. I was doing the right thing in how I was clearing snow from the pavements around my home and b. that I’m very unlikely to ever be sued and certainly not successfully.

The next step is for clearing pavements outside homes to become a required duty of able bodied citizens.

Do you think that should be a duty placed on everyone?