BBC research has found that more than a third of English councils support policies that could increase carbon emissions despite having declared a climate emergency.
BBC news - Council policies often inconsistent with climate goals
Road building and airport expansion are among examples provided by 45 out of 121 questionnaire respondents who say they have passed climate motions.
Between March and June 2021, the BBC surveyed all 149 top tier councils in England, of which 136 responded.
Almost 9 in 10 councils (121 out of 136 respondents, 89%) have declared a "climate emergency.
Of those, more than 1 in 3 councils (45 out of 121 respondents, 37%) said they supported at least one policy that could increase carbon emissions, such as new road building or airport expansion.
About two-thirds of councils (91 out of 136 respondents, 67%) said the pandemic had affected their plans to tackle climate change.
These are very disappointing findings given the escalating climate emergency and the fact that immediate and significant action is required to halt and reverse it.
I was especially disappointed to learn that whilst 9 in 10 councils have declared a “climate emergency”, my own council, Essex County Council, which is led by a huge Conservative majority, evidently has not.
It is all very well commenting on their website (see here) on the recent devastating report published by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) (see here), together with other "greenwash", but it is shameful that Essex County Council has not followed the vast majority of other councils in declaring a climate emergency.
The environmental campaign group Friends of the Earth is calling for the introduction of a legal duty for councils to take UK climate change targets into account when considering planning applications.
If project evaluations and approvals can take in to account issues like health and safety risk assessments and diversity impact assessments, then surely policy considerations, including planning, can and should have more than just a due regard for the impacts on climate change?
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