NOT EVERY COUNCIL IS FOLLOWING THE CLIMATE EMERGENCY BANDWAGON

Below are a few that are not afraid to be different, though some only a little.

17th May

Worcestershire County Council reject climate emergency call

Hundreds of protesters turned up to County Hall and sat in a packed council chamber to hear whether the council would declare a climate emergency and set a target of making the authority carbon neutral by 2030.

An amended motion, put forward by cabinet member for environment Cllr Tony Miller and backed by the Conservatives, removed the plea to declare a climate emergency and pushed the carbon neutral target back to 2050. 

17 May 2019

Lincolnshire county councillors have rejected a call to declare a climate emergency

 but made a commitment to become carbon neutral by 2050.

A motion tabled by the Labour opposition group at a meeting today called on the council to commit the authority to being carbon neutral by 2030.

But, the authority turned down the motion and passed an amendment noting the declaration of a climate emergency and a new target date.

Surrey County Council reject Climate Change Motion

19 March 2019

Surrey County Council has rejected a Climate Emergency motion [1], which would have meant putting plans in place to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and make Surrey carbon neutral by 2030.

 Instead Surrey passed an amended motion which failed to commit them to any specific future action.

Derbyshire County Council Fails to Declare Climate Emergency

A motion calling on Derbyshire County Council to formally declare a climate change emergency and to set a target to become carbon neutral by 2030 was put forward by the Labour opposition.

Pitched by Labour group leader Cllr Anne Western, the motion said that “climate change is an existential threat”. After hours of debate, the motion was eventually altered by Conservative leader Cllr Barry Lewis to stop short of declaring an emergency and to remove a target date for carbon neutrality. It also states that “climate change may become an existential threat”.

The vote on the amended motion passed by 30 votes for, two against and 17 abstentions.

WARRINGTON Borough Council will not be declaring a climate emergency – despite calls from both of the town’s MPs.

Warrington South MP Faisal Rashid urged the authority to declare an environment and climate emergency last month. The politician wrote to leader Cllr Russ Bowden to advocate ‘urgent and concerted action’ to tackle the ‘escalating international ecological crisis’.

It followed a plea from Warrington North MP Helen Jones, who asked Town Hall chiefs to declare an emergency in line with a number of authorities across the country. She highlighted that such a declaration would commit it to becoming carbon neutral by 2030, while ensuring it would work with other bodies to drive down the town's carbon footprint

The council has responded to the pair. A spokesman said: "while we are not currently taking steps to declare a climate emergency, we are making the reduction of our carbon footprint a priority in many of the things we do. “These include using greener vehicles, solar projects, promoting public transport and active travel and simply switching off unnecessary lighting in council buildings.