The Green Party has a very long history of campaigning on climate change. In Reading we led the coalition of groups - involving members of Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace, Rising Tide and others - tht campaigned and petitioned for the council to sign the Nottingham Declaration and take action on climate change.

The council has recently published a draft climate change strategy and action plan which was one of the commitments following on from the signing of the Nottingham Declaration.

Whilst the Green Party welcomes the strategy and plan as an improvement on the muddled approach to addressing climate change we had before, the Green Party has a number of concerns:

1. Putting the council‘s house in order
We agree that the council needs to show leadership on tackling climate change by reducing the carbon emissions from council buildings and employees, but their target of a 10% reduction by 2012/13 is weak. In line with the latest science, we need a headline target of a 90% cut in carbon emissions from council services of by 2030. To achieve this target we need yearly cuts of 10%.

2. People, businesses and empowerment
The council sets no target for a reduction in the Boroughs emissions. As the majority of emissions in Reading come from people and business living and operating in the area this is a massive oversight. We would like to see a high target for a reduction in the Borough‘s emissions and a framework to engage and empower people and businesses to work together and make these cuts.

3. Lobbying the government
Reading cannot tackle climate change on its own. We need to work with other councils and lobby the government to have a strong and robust Climate Change Bill, with decent targets and a framework that enables people and businesses to rise to the challenge of tackling climate change. Yet the Council‘s strategy and plan makes no criticisms of the government‘s failure to take the necessary action so far and proposes no action to remedy this.

Green Party Parliamentary candidate for Reading East Rob White said:

"Climate change is the biggest social justice issue of our time. Back in 2005 we changed the council‘s position from ‘declarations don‘t mean anything, it‘s action that counts‘ to ‘it is clear that climate change is the biggest threat to mankind, far greater than even terrorism‘. So it‘s great to see the council publishing a climate change strategy and plan which is infinitely better than the incoherent approach they had before. Having said that, unfortunately this plan doesn‘t go far enough to truly tackle climate change locally."

"We want to see the council truly put their house in order, empower local people and businesses to rise to the challenge of tackling climate change and lobby the government for a robust Climate Change Bill."

"Unfortunately, while we‘ve got a council obsessed with turning Reading into a city, committed to sending a quarter of our waste to be incinerated and trying to increase the number of cars on our roads, I struggle to see how the council will reduce the Boroughs climate changing emissions at all."

ENDS

Notes for the Editor

1. For more information please contact Rob White on 07985 923938 or 0118 950 4062.