Is it time to declare a climate emergency?

'Our house is on fire!' This was how Swedish schoolgirl Greta Thunberg began her powerful speech to the World Economic Forum at Davos in January. 'According to the IPCC, we are less than 12 years away from not being able to undo our mistakes.' Since then we’ve had the warmest February on record and heard news that insect populations are in dramatic decline. While relishing the unseasonable weather, who has not been spooked this year by the early appearance of blossom, and other signs of spring happening so early?

At what point do we sound the alarm and start treating climate change much more seriously? This was a question posed by the Greening Steyning group when it met recently. The answer was surely, ‘now!’

The ‘Climate Emergency’ movement has been making just this point. It started in 2017 when the City of Darebin, a suburb of Melbourne, declared a climate emergency and announced an ambitious plan to galvanize local action to tackle climate change. The movement has been gathering pace ever since, and took off in the UK after Bristol declared in November 2018. Over 35 councils have followed suit by declaring an emergency, including Oxford, Brighton & Hove, Wiltshire and Devon. More are declaring every week.

We decided to launch a campaign to encourage Horsham District Council and West Sussex County Council to follow their lead. Since then we’ve been joined by like-minded environment and community from groups across the South East and broadened the campaign to cover the whole of Surrey and Sussex. A new umbrella group – the South East Climate Alliance (SECA) – has been set up to coordinate efforts.

Action on climate change is needed at every level if we are to get on top of the climate crisis, from individual households to global agreements. But local councils have a key role to play. Their policies and actions have a big effect on many aspects of the local economy and environment, not least in transport, housing, waste and recycling, and landscape management.

By declaring a climate emergency, councils are acknowledging publicly that climate change needs to move from being a peripheral issue, and instead be placed at the centre of the policy agenda. But passing a motion to declare a climate emergency is just the first step. It needs to be followed up with an action plan to get on top of climate change, otherwise it risks being little more than window dressing.

Phase 1 of the campaign is up and running. A a motion to declare a climate emergency has already been tabled at West Sussex County Council, and is coming up for debate on Friday April 5th. Working with environment groups across the county, Greening Steyning is mobilizing a letter writing campaign to encourage our County Councillors to back the motion. And there will be a big demonstration on the steps of County Hall in Chichester on the day of the debate.

Phase 2 is to use the upcoming local elections on May 2nd to encourage candidates to back the idea of Horsham District Council declaring a climate emergency. It’s a deliberately cross-party effort, since the climate challenge goes way beyond party politics.

If our house really is ‘on fire’, then let’s do something about it!
If you’d like to learn more about the campaign, and get involved, contact us at:
1010steyning@gmail.com or take a look at the SECA website: www.seclimatealliance.uk

Launch of a ‘Plastic Free’ campaign in Steyning, Bramber and Beeding – 6th April.

Greening Steyning are also mounting a parallel campaign to cut down on single use plastics. It’s being launched at the Steyning Farmers Market on 6th April at 11.00am. Come along if you’d like to add your support.