The Labour Party, along with the Green Party and the Lib Dems, will propose a joint amendment to a full council meeting of Warwickshire County Council later this week asking councillors to declare a ‘Climate Emergency’.

The amendment to be proposed by Cllr Helen Adkins of the Labour Party and seconded by Jonathon Chilvers of the Green Party, calls upon Warwickshire County Council, along with its Borough and District Partners, to work towards Warwickshire becoming carbon neutral by 2030 by utilising all of WCC’s powers and responsibilities in areas such as transport, waste and the economy. It also calls on the Council to work towards becoming a net zero carbon organisation, including where possible, contracted out services by 2025. The amendment asks for a cross party working group to bring an action plan to cabinet within 6 months to implement these commitments and also asks for the County Council to lobby central Government to provide the powers and resources needed so that the above issues can be addressed.

Cllr Helen Adkins commented, ‘this is an urgent issue and our amendment asks for tough targets to be set. The benefits for the people of Warwickshire are clear – we want to see a move towards reducing carbon, tackling pollution and reviewing which of the council’s services could be run in a greener and smarter way. We just hope the Tories vote to support this motion. We are concerned some do not see this as a serious issue.’

Richard Chattaway, the leader of the Labour Group at WCC commented, ‘across the world people are taking part in climate strikes to demand politicians do more to tackle climate change. We feel that it is incumbent to those in power to do all they can before it’s too late. I hope that there will be enough support in the council chamber for us to pass this amendment and then get to work.’

Maggie O’Rourke, whip of the Labour group at WCC also commented, ‘Importantly, the motion sets to tackle poor Air Quality, since it calls upon Warwickshire County Council to move towards a sustainable transport plan in partnership with its Borough and District partners, to work with interested parties to raise awareness about climate change and to develop a community strategy to promote ways people and businesses can take action to cut greenhouse gas emissions.’

The amendment will be voted on in full council on Thursday 25th July.