25 June 2019
Last night the Full council meeting of Harborough District Council debated an officer report on whether or not the council should declare a Climate Emergency.
In short the council voted unanimously to accept the report and in effect declared a "Climate Emergency".
Cllrs Bateman, James, Banister, Knowles, Fosker, Bremner and finally King spoke on the subject, some admitting their lack of knowledge on climate change. Two councillors enforced how little effect the councils efforts would have on the global scale and that they also needed to be aware that they need to consider the views of climate deniers in the district also that any mitigations need to be weighed up to ensure the business case is there.
The report includes the over arching paragraph
"Council declares a “Climate Emergency” with an aim to make Harborough District Council activities as far as practical carbon neutral by 2030."
Which restricts the scope of the emergency to the Councils own activities and allows for a subjective view of what is practicable.
The report recomends the establishment of a working group constituted of 5 to 7 councillors to report back in 12 months with recomendations. There is no defined scope for outside interested parties to participate in this process.
The report can be found here