Stroud Green Party is calling on Stroud MP David Drew (Labour), and the Gloucestershire County Council cabinet member for climate change Cllr Nigel Moore (Conservative), to make climate change their top priority and spell out what steps they will take in response to Monday’s IPCC report.
The IPCC’s Special Report warns that we have 12 years to limit a climate change catastrophe. The report noted that emissions need to be cut by 45% by 2030 in order to keep warming within 1.5C. That means decisions have to be taken in the next two years to decommission coal power plants and replace them with renewables; because major investments usually have a lifecycle of at least a decade.
Cllr Jim Dewey (Green, Coley and Uley) said:
“The predicted damage to our families, our countryside and the places we cherish if we don’t achieve the 1.5C targets is terrifying. Yet we have a government that is actively promoting fracking while stopping new on-shore wind turbines. We need a government of national unity to tackle the climate emergency: it’s right here, right now. For our defence and security our national politicians have to act and our MP David Drew should be all over this.”
County Cllr Rachel Smith (Green, Minchinhampton), who last month proposed a motion at Gloucestershire County Council which resulted in the creation of a Cabinet Member for Climate Change, said:
“Gloucestershire County Council now needs to demonstrate how they intend to use their authority to protect Gloucestershire. The action needed is easy to understand: cut the county’s carbon habit. The Cabinet Member for Climate Change needs to demonstrate, for all our sakes, that he has the political ability to achieve this: particularly since it is his own party that has slashed support for renewables and eased rules on fracking. It is worrying that so far he has failed to acknowledge the IPCC report and its consequences for Gloucestershire”.