This Climate Emergency Motion, proposed by Cllr. Dyan Jones, Environment Portfolio Holder was passed with unanimous support at the Council Meeting on 26th February 2019.
“Climate Emergency 2019
Council confirms that it is committed to reducing its carbon emissions and continues to look at all areas of policy and delivery. The Climate Change Policy and the work of the Green Team demonstrates and clarifies our position and ambitions.
Council recognises that many organisations have been working hard locally and nationally to identify and address climate change in their own communities and with partners. However, council believes action needs to happen faster. Business as usual is not enough and there is a growing urgency to implement these actions more rapidly.
Council notes:
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s 1.5?C special report which provides, with sobering clarity, the evidence of the impact of climate change.
The wider acknowledgement from some bodies that there is a 50% chance of a 2?C rise by the end of this century.
The World Meteorological Organisation in their annual bulletin (November 2018) state that carbon dioxide levels hit new highs of 405.5 parts per million (ppm) in 2017, up from 403.3 ppm in 2016 and 400.1 ppm in 2015.
The UN Gap Report published before the COP24 in Poland this year, reminding us that the Paris Agreement targets are off track.
UK Met Office’s 2018 Prediction offering an assessment of what we can expect to experience – higher sea levels, rise in temperatures, disrupted rainfall patterns, and as we have seen recently, flooding, over heating and torrential unpredicted rain.
Council confirms that we are facing a climate emergency
Council now urges government to recognise this urgency and to work with local authorities, health services, businesses, consumers, farmers, educational institutions and all other interested bodies to reduce to zero as quickly as possible our carbon emissions and their equivalents.”
(signed by Councillor Dyan Jones)
