Our behaviours on climate must change

I read with interest the Richard Scase article on climate change and a citizens assembly [‘We need a citizens assembly to combat climate emergency’, March 5].

I fully support his statement that in order to tackle climate change we need to change behaviour. I am one of the Labour councillors on the Canterbury Climate Change Working Party. We have been meeting for six months. We were instructed by the full council to discuss a citizens assembly. Despite some recent discussions on consulting local groups and using a questionnaire there has been a marked reluctance of the Conservatives to address this thoroughly.

The Labour group believe that climate change will not be prevented until we all learn to change our behaviour, How these changes take place cannot be left to council committees or pressure groups alone. To engage the public and reach acceptable solutions the issues must be addressed by a cross-section of citizens from the whole Canterbury district. All the evidence is that such assemblies reach innovative, informed and widely acceptable solutions, which is what we need to address the diverse and specific challenges in the Canterbury district. The Labour group is proposing that the extra £500,000 allocated for climate change should be used to set up a citizens assembly and that running concurrently should be a young persons assembly to ensure the voice of the future generations is heard and acted on.

A climate change emergency was declared and we need to act promptly to address that emergency.

Cllr Valerie Kenny

Gorrell Ward (Labour)