The current Coventry Climate Action Network (CovCAN) was created in 2016 by UNA Coventry in response to the demands of students who were taking part in the Student Strike for Climate for a central group to coordinate the activities of others such as eco-teams in schools. It was a revival of an earlier group created by the University of Warwick. More about its history is given here.

Over the years activity of the group has declined as it lacked the leadership required for dynamic activity.

However, it has a website maintained by UNA Coventry and a Facebook page with over 300 followers.

In 2022 Friends of the Earth (FoE) West Midlands invited CovCAN to join a new network of local groups with other climate action groups into a new Local Action Group network.

This could be done:

• either by forming a new FoE group in Coventry (at present there is no local group)
• or by continuing to using our current name but working within the new network.

In either case, CovCAN would be required to sign a Local Action Group Charter.

Such a group would also be required to submit financial records to FoE, coordinate with other local groups, run active campaigns, hold regular meetings that new members can attend and so on.

A survey about this proposal was put to the 15 members of the CovCAN WhatsApp group in November. Three members responded, all of whom voted to merge with FoE. The details of the responses are listed on the page https://covcan.uk/future-of-coventry-climate-action-network/

However the survey did not produce a clear decision on which type of group to form. This decision needs to be made before any other action can be taken.

Comments are invited on the above page.