FOCUS ON CLIMATE EMERGENCY

We are facing a climate and ecological emergency. This is the decisive decade during which we must act to avert the worst impacts of climate change, habitat loss and ecological collapse. In Oxfordshire we are especially aware of threats of worse flooding.  Elsewhere in the world the impacts are already devastating in some countries, for both people and their environment.

In January 2019, the Greens successfully proposed a motion to Council declaring a climate and ecological emergency in the City. More than three years later there has been a lot of talk but little action. This is not the first time the Council have procrastinated on environmental issues.

In response to on-going pressure from the Greens, Council plans have now committed to a ‘net zero’ Council by 2030 and a wider ‘Zero Carbon Oxford’ partnership have signed a charter that aspires to make the whole City zero carbon by 2040. Though welcome, these plans are vague and unfunded. They ignore many significant sources of emissions.

Only the Greens are in a position to hold the Council to account and make sure they deliver on these aspirations.