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  1. The following motion has been proposed by Councillor Stotesbury and seconded by Councillor Bell

“Man-made climate change is the biggest threat that humanity faces. In 2018 the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report states that we have just 12 years to act on climate change if global temperatures rises are to be kept within the recommended 1.5 degrees celsius.

All governments whether national, regional or local have a duty to limit the negative impacts on climate change and need to commit to aggressive reduction targets and carbon neutrality as quickly as possible.

Watford Borough Council has a pivotal role to play in tackling climate change and enabling sustainable living.

We recognise the importance of tackling climate change both in the terms of reducing greenhouse gas emissions to minimise future global climate change and planning for the unavoidable local impacts of climate change.

Therefore Watford Borough Council approves the following:

1)     Join other Councils in recognising and declaring a climate emergency

2)     Pledge to do everything within the Council’s power to make the whole of Watford carbon neutral by 2030

3)     Within this develop an ambitious sustainability strategy for reducing the Council’s own emissions, with an objective that the Council becomes carbon neutral by 2030

4)     Use all planning regulations and the Local Plan to cut carbon emissions and reduce the impact on the environment

5)     Call on national government for more powers and resources to make this pledge possible, and ask the Elected Mayor to write to the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs to this effect

6)     Continue to work with partners across the borough, county and region to deliver this new goal through all relevant strategies and plans

7)     Take account of climate impacts within existing decision making processes

8)     Report back to Council, via the newly established Sustainability Forum, on an action plan to address the climate emergency, and then every six months after this an update on progress being made. The proposed action plan to be on the agenda of the Sustainability Forum to be held 3rd October 2019

9)     Dedicate enough staff and budget to achieve these aims, including the most appropriate training for members and officers to promote carbon neutral polices and to achieve these aims”