Councillor Andrew Cooper - Speech to Kirklees Council on Declaring a Climate Emergency

Firstly I welcome this motion to 'Declare a Climate Emergency' and I thank Councillor Murgatroyd for his initiative in bringing it forward. It follows on from a number of other motions by Councils around the country the first one in the UK in Bristol introduced by my Green Party colleagues there and this has been followed by a number of others including Stroud and most recently Bradford Council last night. It is also now a global phenomenon and even Councils on the other side of the Planet in Australia are passing similar motions based on the call to action inspired by the IPCC report.

So what is it all about. We have limited time to act and national Governments are not acting nearly fast enough. I was at the UN Climate Talks in Katovice , Poland last month where on behalf of the EU Committee of the Regions we were calling for National Government’s to work in partnership with Local Authorities to address climate change. So a quick question to members. How many emails , memos, calls for assistance with the Paris Climate goals have we in Local Government received from National Government since it was signed over 3 years ago? You know the answer it is zero.

We are the people with the closest links to communities, who can mobilise action quickly, who have strong links with the wider public sector and business. If we are not properly valued and involved in action to address climate change then we will fail.

Passing this Climate Emergency motion is an important first step but it will meaningless if not followed up by meaningful action. I know recycling is an important issue and does have a relationship with climate change and it is somewhat bizarre that it is the only specific aspiration mentioned in this motion. There is a lot more we could do.

In July this year Government announced that we could set our own energy efficiency standards in our Local Plan and that crucially these could be higher than those set in National Building regulations. On Monday I visited the Navarre Region of Northern Spain where the Local Authority there is currently building 524 Passivhaus accredited homes for social rent. It was inspiring stuff, the people on the lowest incomes having good standard housing with negligible fuel bills. It was good to see such strong leadership. It is not an isolated story and around Europe we now seeing tens of thousands of such homes being built. In the UK we have leading authorities like Norwich and Exeter doing some successful groundbreaking work on Passivhaus developments. In Kirklees it has been a bit slow. The Passivhaus Report produced by the All Party Policy Task force probably reported about 2 years ago and has never been responded to. Now I know some positive work on standards is being pursued but we like a strong statement of what our policy is in this area to guide officer and show we are a leader in this area.

Similarly with the use of electric vehicles we are well behind a number of other Local Authorities. We now have 3. I am told via the Examiner that we have another 17 planned. Leeds City Council has 200 electric vehicles. We need to do more.

We have been at our best as once the Leading Authority on Green policies when we have been our boldest. When we were the first Council in the country to provide householders with a universally free insulation scheme. We won the prestigious Ashden Award recognising our pioneering work in energy efficiency

When we finally decided to pursue a solar programme on Council homes ( 5 years too late in my opinion) we won the Solar installer of the year award. No we shouldn’t chase baubles for the sake of it but recognise that fortune favours the bold.

We need to ignore the naysayers, those who urge caution based on outdated or just wrong knowledge, and ignore those who will never take a risk until they have all the information they feel they need. Why should we take this approach? Because it is a climate emergency and should be treated as such. We don’t have the time to come up with perfect plans, we should be guided by what has worked well for others and take informed risks when we need to. If we heed the advice of dinosaurs we will go the way of the dinosaurs.

Action on climate change is a great opportunity for this council. New skills, activities that can bring communities together. Not simply saving carbon and energy but money as well. Let’s pass this motion and act decisively not just for Kirklees, or to do just what others have done but to provide the direction and leadership on climate action that is lacking in this country.

Support this motion