You wait for decades for a Climate related motion to come before Council and then two come along at once. Two excellent motions one from the Lib Dems supported by Transition Town Northampton and one by the Labour Party supported by the amazing students I supported on their Climate Action Strike day and also endorsed by the Conservatives. They are not mutually exclusive and both should be passed and passed unanimously.
Scientists, the IPCC and the UK Committee on Climate Change are in clear agreement that Global warming is a real threat to us all.
David Attenborough says that our very way of life is under threat. Greta Thunberg agrees and told MPs that we in the UK have contributed more than anyone to the Carbon that is already in the atmosphere, and she is right.
Both of them say we have made a brave start on reducing the climate change gases we emit and that we must drive forward with renewed ambition if we are to protect our planet for all of our futures.
As I said to a Cllr at the student strike day event, Transition Town Northampton is apolitical and this is too important to be anything other than an ‘all-party’ effort. If we are to respond with the speed and effectiveness the planet needs, we must work together. No time for trumpeting past successes, no time for criticising past failures and no time for making political capital as these will only divide us and delay progress towards Zero Carbon Northampton, the essential initial goal. I hope that All Parties will cooperate to put a joint motion to the next County Council and to the first meetings of the two Unitary Councils.
An emergency is defined as; “A sudden state of danger requiring immediate action”. Suddenly we are awake to the long known about danger and the key now is Action. Action. Action.
At the end of the year, one year of the 12 we were told we had to deal with our man-made Global Warming will have gone. The worry now is that we may not have 11 more years. Every year we don’t act increases the urgency, and the cost, of future action.
We therefore call for a Northampton Zero Carbon Group to be established to drive immediate action. Local Authorities, all political parties, Student Rebellion, Extinction Rebellion, Business, Community groups, Transition Town Northampton, Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace, academics; all those with a contribution to make should be invited to help to Make It Happen. Many Councils have declared a Climate Emergency so we don’t have to reinvent the wheel, we just need to get started.
We all have ideas that can begin to be put into action almost immediately, many at little or no cost to the Council. The usual two years for a plan to start is not acceptable. We Must start tomorrow.
TTN has a meeting on Wednesday at Kingsley Park WMC 7pm Waste Prevention is the topic with Charles Warner from the U.o.N. If you pass these motions today then you are all invited. You’re all invited anyway…
Zero Carbon Northampton. Let’s make it a reality!
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Press note. TTN and The Liberal Democrats agreed and tried to gain support from the Conservative and the Labour Group unaware of the Labour Groups motion. (The need for open cooperation made clear.)
Sadly no councils have much, if any, influence on education and anecdotally all the recycling done in the classroom goes, in some schools, into the same general waste bin before it leaves the school…
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