A councillor has warned colleagues that pursuing carbon net zero will be “exorbitant and unaffordable”.
Cllr Thomas Marshall, Conservative representative for Armitage with Handsacre, told a meeting of Lichfield District Council that he had reservations over efforts to address climate change.
It is not the first time he has spoken out on the issue, having previously drawn criticism after suggesting people were “being led up the garden path” when it came to carbon net zero.
He reiterated his views during a debate on the scale of the local authority’s budget that should put towards addressing climate change.
Cllr Marshall said:
“If you understand the principles of a standard deviation curve, then you will know that there will always be outliers at the extreme – I am an outlier when it comes to climate change.
“I will echo the words of someone last week, not a heretic but the boss of the international business INEOS. Jim Ratcliffe said this country was unaware of the likely cost of implementing carbon net zero and that as a country we have underestimated it.
“It’s a concern of mine that the council will also underestimate the enormous cost of implementing it.
“We do need to look at the likely cost as I think it is going to be exorbitant and unaffordable.”
Cllr Thomas Marshall
Cllr Marshall’s comments followed concerns raised by Cllr Miles Trent over the apparent disappearance of a budget for climate change in the medium term financial strategy at the council.
But Cllr Rob Strachan, cabinet member for finance, said that the council would use the £50,000 remaining of a £100,000 investment made four years ago into the exploration of local initiatives to tackle climate change before deciding on where best to direct funding in future.
“Through a combination of the pandemic and perhaps not benchmarking as well as we should have done, we’ve only spent £50,000 so far.
“It is inevitable that this will require more. Cllr Marshall – in one of the few elements I agree with him on – made reference to climate change being immensely expensive to address.
“A piece of work is being carried out that is going to bring forward proposals that will develop their own budget, but at the moment we don’t know what that is.
“We recognise that climate change is an issue and we will address this.”
Cllr Rob Strachan
