Local Parish Council Declares Climate Emergency
One of our local Parish Councils, Witchford, has become, we think, the first in the district to declare a Climate Emergency and pledges to become carbon neutral by 2030.
The Council’s full declaration states:
We are facing an unprecedented climate and ecological catastrophe. Leading scientists from the IPCC have warned that if we carry on with business as usual and don’t take emergency action on climate change, we face the gravest threats to our local and global environment. This includes worsening risks of drought, floods, extreme heat and poverty for hundreds of millions of people. Extreme weather events are already being seen, even in East Cambridgeshire which experienced severe drought last year. More recently, during a heatwave in July 2019 the highest temperature ever recorded in the UK was reached in Cambridge.
In the light of this urgent situation Witchford Parish Council:
- Declares a Climate Emergency
- Pledges to make the parish council carbon neutral by 2030
- Will encourage the parish council’s contractors, other organisations within the village, East Cambridgeshire District Council and Cambridgeshire County Council to also commit to becoming carbon neutral by 2030<
- Calls on the East Cambridgeshire District Council and Cambridgeshire County Council, the Mayor and the Government to provide the powers, resources and technical support to make the 2030 target possible
- Will work with local stakeholders to develop a strategy in line with a target of net-zero emissions by 2030, via a Council Working Party or Committee involving participation from as wide a range of residents, young people, businesses, and other relevant parties as possible and should report within 6 months, or at least in time for their recommendations to be funded in the 2021 budget cycle
The district’s vulnerability to flooding from raised sea levels makes the threat from the climate emergency a very real local issue and it’s good to see local parish councils taking it seriously.
