‘Good news at last in climate battle’
MOORLANDS Climate Action welcomes the news that the cabinet member for climate change and biodiversity, Cllr Joe Porter, will now be receiving help in the form of a deputy, Councillor Andrew Hart.
We cannot reclaim all the time lost since SMDC declared a Climate Emergency a year and half ago, but this week’s recognition that the current set-up is not working was essential.
All parties across the Moorlands, and those of no parties, know that SMDC is a country mile away from producing a credible plan to meet its district-wide commitment to Netzero Carbon by 2030.
Councillor Porter promised the plan for the start of 2021. That deadline was missed; the new one is for November of this year.
A public consultation on the climate change plan is set for the summer. As it stands, there is very little for SMDC to consult the public on.
The council has finally, a year later than needed, brought in professional help in the form of the respected environmental consultancy Anthesis. It may even be that Anthesis finds so little of the essential base work for the district has been done that it advises the council to alter its overall 2030 target.
Whatever that target, it cannot be achieved without an injection of resources at the officer level.
We hope that, as is widely believed, an officer with primary responsibility for climate change will soon be appointed.
The business case has been made, and by council leader Sybil Ralphs herself. Speaking this week, she said that climate change was so important that ‘you cannot put a price on it.’
MCA is continuing to work with councillors and officers in the task of constructing a climate change plan fit to ensure that the Moorlands is not left behind but instead gets its fair share of the opportunities created by the decarbonisation of the UK economy. This is something that Boris Johnson’s government has rightly made the centre of its vision.
We welcome the opportunity to work with Councillor Hart, confident that he will not wish to be a partner to failure but will instead bring the rigour and resolution that the SMDC climate change plan so dearly needs.
Mark Johnson
Moorlands Climate Action