Gloucestershire County Council has passed a motion on climate change proposed by Green Councillor Sarah Lunnon and seconded by Tewkesbury Independent Mike Sztymiack. The motion, which received support from Labour, Lib Dems and Tories, commits the council to action on climate change and calls for a task force to review how action can be taken locally to address climate change and develop the ‘low carbon economy’. Please click here to read the motion in full.
Here is a copy of Sarah’s rousing speech in defence of the motion:
“The mechanism by which greenhouse gasses (GHGs) warm the environment has been understood for hundreds of years. Today climate scientists are united in their understanding that due to the extra GHGs added to the atmosphere, due to our burning of carbon in fossil fuels, the climate is warming. The argument now is by how much and what will be the impact on our lives, our families our countryside
The tendrils of climate change are beginning to tickle our world, witness the ongoing super-drought in California, the super storms smashing into Pacific Island states and here on our temperate Isles: in fact in Stroud where the local plan has been impacted by the EA redrawing the flood boundaries.
Analysis of the chaos currently taking hold in the southern Mediterranean has ultimately linked it back to ongoing drought driving farming communities from their land into destitution in large cities, leading to civil unrest and radicalisation.
It is an uncomfortable truth, one that it is easier not to face, put off and instead deal with the immediate issues. But –
We need to protect our families, our communities, our countryside. The beauty of Gloucestershire is often referred to in this chamber, we now need to protect the beechwoods of the escapement, the villages of the Severn Vale, the farmers of the Forest. If we continue with business as usual, or even business with a bit of nuclear and renewable energy on the side we will be sowing the seeds of our own destruction.
What will be the impacts of climate change? It could be the promotion of drought resistant crops in Gloucestershire, creating secure jobs and developing new technologies, it could be the deployment of renewable energies providing security, resilience and stable communities. Climate Change has been identified as one of the top three factors likely to lead to civil unrest by the Ministry of Defence. When the MoD start worrying about bats and the greater crested newt, it really is time to take action.
Climate change is the issue of our time, but it is unseeable and faceless, yet a threat with the potential to wreak all that we cherish. It also requires a major creative response from us to determine and communicate the threat and find solutions
The happiness, the health and wellbeing of our communities, their traditions and sense of belonging, not simply their financial wealth deserve to be protected. This motion helps Gloucestershire along the path to providing the justice, security and protection our communities require.”
Summing up –
“We have the opportunity to act, to protect, to develop. And while we may agree on the end point – an economy based on a low carbon energy sources, resilient to extreme weather events and a warming climate – I do not pretend to have the perfect map describing how to get there. This motion if accepted will go some way to describing that route.”