Environment key to us all

PROTECTING the environment is something of key importance to all our futures, and should be a priority for politicians, at all levels.

This has been swung into sharp focus in recent weeks with a new UN Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report warning legislators across the world that without meaningful change over the next decade we risk passing the point of no return.

The report warns that without change, we risk significantly worsening the risks of drought, floods, extreme heat and poverty for hundreds of millions of people.

We must treat this warning as a line in the sand, one which we can’t cross, or else risk irrevocably damaging our environment for generations to come.

In Stockport, the Labour-led Council is leading the way to ensure we tackle these challenges head on.

Stockport council has signed up to the UK 100 pledge – this means that the Council is committed to ensuring the entire Councils runs on 100 per cent clean energy by 2050.

Added to this Stockport has also announced the largest ever programme of tree planting and stump replacements ever undertaken by the Council.

This will not only help absorb and ultimately reduce carbon dioxide (Co2) and other particulates in the air we breathe, but also help cool neighbourhoods in summer months and promote local insect life in the borough.

Towards that end, Stockport Council has also begun installing a number of beehives on the roofs of council buildings, helping to support pollination and propping up an important plank in the ecosystem. More widely, Stockport’s Brownfield First agenda sits at the heart of the authorities Local Plan, which seeks to ensure minimal development on green land, through encouraging town centre living (plans which received a major boost as the GMCA recently agreed, in principle, to Stockport’s Town Centre west redevelopment plans becoming a Mayoral Development Corporation).

This will speed the building of 3,000 homes on Brownfield sites as part of a new ‘urban village,’ further easing the need for development on green sites.

Stockport’s council leader, Coun Alex Ganotis, is leading the Green City portfolio, which aims to make Greater Manchester one of the Greenest City Regions in Europe and move towards a ‘carbon neutral, climate resilient city-region with a thriving natural environment and circular, and zero-waste economy.’

Labour nationally and locally takes today’s environmental challenges, as well as the opportunities of tomorrow with the seriousness that the situation deserves.