Climate Change

Why do we need to declare a climate emergency?

On 8th October 2018, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released a vital report on the state of climate science. They warned that if the planet warmed by 1.5C there would be some devastating consequences, such as the loss of most coral reefs, and increased extreme weather such as heatwaves and floods. Yet the consequences of allowing 2C warming would be truly catastrophic. Given that the planet is currently heading for 3-4C warming, keeping to 1.5C requires a radical shift across energy, land, industrial, urban and other systems to reduce emissions – unprecedented in history for its speed.

Growing numbers of parish, town and county councils are declaring a Climate Emergency. This is a genuine commitment to work towards a specific measurable target. It might seem that a Parish Council can’t really do much, but Climate change is relevant to many of our activities…

  • Creating green space in the village
  • Working to improve public transport
  • Providing feedback on wider council strategies for transport, housing as well as specific feedback on planning applications.
  • This proposal provides justification to treat climate change as a factor in future decision making.
  • All levels of government national, regional and local, have a duty to secure our community from the negative impacts of climate breakdown. Local government should not wait for national government to change their policies.

Broomhaugh & Riding Parish Council declared a climate emergency on 9th December 2019.  To view a copy of how we propose to tackle climate change in our community please click here.

For latest village initiatives, click here.