Joe Porter

Councillor for Brown Edge and Endon, SMDC cabinet member for climate change

CLIMATE change is the single biggest challenge we face as a planet. It is clear that the weather patterns we experience are changing before our eyes.

The impact on our everyday lives is massive.

Food and water security are affected, as is national security.

Across the planet, rich habitats have been devastated, wildlife and plant populations are plummeting, and diseases are on the rise in many parts of the world.

In the UK, 97 per cent of our wildflower meadows have disappeared since the 1930s and 76 per cent of our butterfly species have declined over the last four decades.

During the past year, we have valued the beautiful world around us more than ever before.

At Staffordshire Moorlands District Council, we know how much the people of the Moorlands care about fighting climate change and restoring nature.

Two years ago we declared a Climate Change Emergency and set a target of becoming carbon neutral by 2030.

Since then, as Cabinet Member for Climate Change and Biodiversity, I have been working behind the scenes with our officer team to engage with community groups, parish and town councils, local businesses, schools, and many external organisations.

We have now published part one of our Climate Change Action Plan following councillor input and approval at our cabinet meeting.

Part one of our Climate Change Action Plan focuses on the Council’s own carbon emissions, which mainly come from our buildings, vehicles, business miles and procurement.

We want to decarbonise our council operations as fast as we can within realistic timescales, but I am really pleased that over the last year we have reduced our emissions by 63 per cent.

To name some of our recent actions, we are improving the energy efficiency of our buildings and purchasing or generating green energy.

We are ensuring that our leisure centres are low carbon and we recently-installed LED lights. We have commissioned the Energy Saving Trust to provide a study and options for our fleet vehicles to go green, such as being hydrogen powered, and the infrastructure we need to develop and support these options.

This will also include us working with partners to establish a network of EV charging points locally.

Later this year we will release part two of the plan, which will cover reducing carbon emissions from the district as a whole.

The public consultation over this summer and the work of the Climate Change sub committee will inform the report and we would welcome members of the public and groups to participate.