The leader of Lichfield District Council says he is committed to ensuring climate change is high on the agenda.
Cllr Doug Pullen made his comments after the decision was made to add environmental issues to the portfolio of Cabinet member Cllr Ashley Yeates.
A motion proposed by Cllr Pullen was passed by councillors.
A previous one had been proposed by Labour opposition group leader Cllr Steve Norman.
But Cllr Pullen said that while the principle of Cllr Norman’s motion was welcomed, it was “unimaginative and lacking ambition”.
“If we wish to make progress, we must be pragmatic.
“A series of specific actions are necessary in order to combat climate change, including a specific Cabinet member to lead on climate change initiatives and ensuring council decisions consider the impact on the environment.
“We must also actively consider investment in green technologies.”
Cllr Doug Pullen, leader of Lichfield District Council
Cllr Robert Strachan, Cabinet member for finance, added that he hoped to amend next year’s budget to create a £100,000 fund to help direct resources towards this aim.
Labour’s Original Motion was:
Lichfield District Council recognises that a climate change emergency exists and, in consequence, resolves to take this into account as a factor in all future policy and spending decisions of the Council, with an Environmental Impact Assessment, whenever appropriate
The Conservative’s rushed amendment was:
Lichfield District Council recognises that a climate change emergency exists, accepts that specific actions are necessary and therefore resolves that it will
· Support the Government’s target of Net Zero Carbon Emission by 2050
· Actively consider investment in green technologies
· Ensure that, where appropriate, decisions made by the Council consider Environmental Impact
· Ask an Overview & Scrutiny Committee to investigate initiatives that will reduce our impact on the environment
· Name a specific Cabinet member for Climate Change
Which became the substantive motion.
The amendment wasn’t written out or given to the Chairman. Nor was the amended motion read out before the vote and it has taken me a couple of days to get it!
Actions would clearly follow the motion if agreed. We wanted all-party support because of the important – and urgent – nature of the issue and as there has been little evidence of the actions that were agreed in 2012 (and which I quoted on the night in response to the surprise amendment) I deliberately kept it low key – especially as it was to be considered two days before Polling Day!
It will be actions that speak louder than words and I know that concerned residents will help us to ensure that is what happens from now on.
Why keep it quiet as the environment is an important subject especially as after brexit a lot of EU instigated inviroment rules could be abolished. As most fishermen are aware of Boris might scrap the rules on cleaning up rivers due to pressure from big industrial polluters
Mike, there are of course many polluting factors. Two factors I particularly hate is the trading off of pollutant quoters and the apparent anonymity of aviation pollution which delivers hundreds of thousands of tons of CO2 directly into the atmosphere. I think I saw statistics of a billion and more flights a year. No government seems to be addressing this (except for putting up taxes) and ours even has massive expansion proposals for some airports. Being cynical, it is hard to believe they are taking global warming seriously (and air pollution). Lastly, there is not enough rare earth elements for battery production worldwide. Looks like we will be walking while the elite continue to drive and fly (while trading off their pollution by planting a couple of trees).