Winchester City Council and Hampshire County Council to declare a Climate Emergency

15 July 2019

Here is our press release:

Dear Editor

Climate Emergency

Winchester Green Party applauds the decision of Winchester City Council and Hampshire County Council to declare a Climate Emergency. We hope for swift action on implementation. Please don’t wait for the emergence of an “action plan” or the setting up of a Citizens Assembly to get started.

Some ideas the Councils could consider straight away:

- Move all their investments in fossil fuel companies to renewables

- HCC can reverse its veto on wind turbines on the land it owns

- Refuse any planning applications for fracking in the licensed locations in Avington and Sparsholt

- Lobby Government to stop requiring electricity fed into the grid from roof top solar panels to be donated free of charge to the large suppliers of electricity

- Crowdfund solar panels for schools – only 8 out of the 530 schools that HCC controls currently have them

- HCC should stop supporting increases in road capacity and expansion of Southampton  Airport.

Much more needs to happen and some of it will be controversial. But above all, our Local Authorities need to act fast, the emergency is real and has been postponed for too long already. In October, the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reported that global temperatures are moving towards a catastrophic 3° C rise during this century.

Your faithfully

Evelyn and Rob Parker for Winchester Green Party

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