At the last moment, immediately before today’s Full Council meeting, Cllr Goodman (Con) proposed an amendment to Cllr Essex’s (Green) motion, heavily watering it down. Deleted items are shown crossed through and additions are in bold italic.
Every Tory Councillor voted for the amendment and not in favour of declaring a climate emergency.
Full Council believes that:
Surrey County Council and all governments (national, regional and local) have a duty should seek to limit the negative impacts of Climate Breakdown, and local governments that recognise this should not wait for their national governments to change their policies.
The Council recognises the work that has already been done to tackle Surrey’s carbon footprint and it is important for the residents of Surrey to commit to carbon neutrality work towards reducing their carbon footprint as quickly as possible.
Bold climate change action can deliver economic benefits to Surrey in terms of valuable new jobs, essential economic savings and much needed market opportunities (as well as improved well-being for people worldwide).
The UK has a world-first Climate Change Act with a legally-binding target of an 80 per cent emissions cut by 2050, and shorter-term national carbon budgets ensuring vear-on-vear emissions cuts.
The Government has made a commitment to be the first generation to leave the environment in a better state than we inherited it and we welcome the Environment (Principles and Governance) Bill, the first in over twenty years, which will be an essential step towards this goal. The Government has pledged to support increased biodiversity and thriving plants and wildlife and to continue to clean up our air and our water, creating a healthier environment.
Full Council to therefore resolves that:
1. Declare a ‘Climate Emergency’ in Surrey;
2. Pledge to make Surrey carbon-neutral by 2030 and strive to work with Surrey’s borough and district Councils in taking a leadership role, taking into account both production and consumption emissions;
1. It will continue to work with Boroughs and Districts to reduce the Surrey-wide carbon footprint to meet the Government’s targets:
3. Call on the Government to provide the powers and resources to make the 2030 target possible;
2.. It will continue to work with the Government on environmental issues and to agree any new powers to assist delivery of the carbon targets:
3. It will be proactive in contributing to the many consultations that have been launched on reducing carbon emissions.
4. Report to County Council within six months with the actions the Council will take to address this.
Full Council also notes that the Cabinet will receive the updated SCC Carbon and Energy Policy for 2020-2025 in December 2019, replacing the current 2015/19 policy.