Rebel Riders – The 522 Mile Cycle to Cop26 with William Ranieri – Day 5/9 – The Recap

A lot has happened in the first 5 days of William Ranieri’s coverage of the group cycling from Brighton to Glasgow for COP26 So many stories in such a short time, Will decided that now was a good time for a quick catch up on all the people he has met and all the stories he covered so far. Please do leave a comment and if you would like to be part of the programme and you’re on our route, get in touch now with William@thelatest.tv

DAY 1 The START From the 24th of October to 1st November, a group of people will be cycling from Brighton to Glasgow in the lead up to COP26, to raise awareness and community action around the climate crisis. The group stopped on the way to meet outside the controversial oil extraction site in Surrey with Climate Activist Rev Helen Burnett.

DAY 2 William visited MaidEnergy, a Community Benefit Society that creates renewable energy projects and I learn about heat pumps Ground source heat pumps use pipes buried in the ground to extract heat and will replace huge gas boilers using a fraction of the emissions. I spoke with “Talking Tree” in Staines to find out more about the Climate Emergency Centre and how communities and businesses can benefit from it.

DAY 3 Electric vehicles have been produced in the UK for at least 10 years, but very few accepted the challenge last decade and kept an EV. In fact, according to the report from The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, only 1082 people did in the whole UK. William spoke with Sean Walters, Maidenergy director, about his experience with electric cars. Will also found out that in Scotland you can charge your EV for free at the majority of the very fast charge points that can charge most EVs from 0 to 80% in 20-30 minutes.

DAY 4 William met with Simon Tilley, Director of the Hockerton Housing Project a small community of earth sheltered homes in Nottinghamshire built-in 1998 with sustainability in mind. They achieved the goal of super insulation so well to remove the need for a space heating system using only passive solar heating and reducing the cost to almost zero. Can this be the building for a green and stainable future? Let’s have a look.