Green Party Councillors on Kirklees Council have welcomed
the lobby of Kirklees Council today by nearly a 100 Climate Change protestors.
Councillor Andrew Cooper, Leader of the Green Group said
“It is surely no coincidence that Kirklees Council have put
out a statement on the climate emergency a day before the lobby of the Council.
It was inspiring to see nearly 100 people attend to show the strength of local
support for robust action on climate change. We have a lot of work to do if we are to play our part in reducing carbon
emissions to a safe level.
The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
say that we need to stabilise our emissions to a safe level by 2030. Kirklees Council
has agreed, along with other West Yorkshire Councils, to achieve net zero
carbon emissions by 2038. This target is
tough but not enough. There is no clear idea in Kirklees yet on how this
target will be achieved and we need to plan quickly the actions we will need to
take to ensure it is achieved.
A real area of concern is that the Council has not yet
adopted a high energy efficiency standard for new buildings. An all party Policy
Working Group recommended adopting the Passivhaus standard for new buildings in
Kirklees over 2 years ago and the Cabinet has not responded to the report
recommendations despite several attempts
to get them to do so. Other Councils such as Norwich and Exeter are specifying
the Passivhaus standard in their developments but Kirklees is so far lagging
behind in this area.
The Climate Emergency Working Group on Kirklees Council
continues to work hard to see what proposals and initiatives we should
recpommend to Kirklees Cabinet. It is supposed to be an all –party Working
Group but it is shameful that the Conservatives have refused to nominate a
representative to this important group. We need to have all politicians working
together on this vital issue.”
The Passivhaus Standard - http://passivhaustrust.org.uk/what_is_passivhaus.php
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