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Posted by South Gloucestershire Liberal Democrats on Monday, 18 January 2021

South Glos Liberal Democrats welcome declaration of Ecological Emergency

South Gloucestershire Liberal Democrats have welcomed the statement by the authority’s majority Conservative group, following pressure from the Opposition Liberal Democrats, that the Council has declared a formal Ecological Emergency.

South Gloucestershire’s neighbouring West of England local authorities of Bath and North East Somerset, North Somerset and Bristol declared Ecological Emergencies earlier in 2020, however Conservative-controlled South Gloucestershire had, until tonight, made no formal statement on the subject.

Following the submission of a motion to tonight’s full council by the Liberal Democrat Group calling for the declaration of an Ecological Emergency, the Conservative group gave notice to the opposition groups of their intention to move an amendment including the phrase: “this council notes that a formal Ecological Emergency has been declared”.

Following this acknowledgement that South Gloucestershire Council has already declared an Ecological Emergency, and the statement by the Leader of the Council during the discussion on Climate Emergency Update Report, that tackling the Ecological Emergency had been fully integrated into tackling the Climate Emergency the Liberal Democrat Group decided it was no longer necessary to move the motion at Council.

Speaking after the meeting, Councillor Adrian Rush, who had been due to move the Liberal Democrat motion, said:

“I welcome the administration’s acknowledgement that, through it’s work on the Climate Emergency, this Council has already declared an Ecological Emergency.

“Declaring an Ecological Emergency is an important step forward. The administration now needs to demonstrate that it takes the Ecological Emergency, which it has acknowledged, seriously.”

Have your say on Climate Change Strategy

Climate Change is one of the biggest challenges facing the world today. South Glos Council is currently consulting on its draft Climate Change Strategy for 2018 - 2023. You can find out more and have your say at www.southglos.gov.uk/climate18 until 12th March.
There are several ways you can respond:

• Take part in the online survey
• Download and print a paper copy of the survey and send to Freepost  RTXL-YJXJ-BXEX, South Gloucestershire Council, Corporate Research & Consultation Team, Climate Change Strategy, Council offices, Badminton Road, Yate, BRISTOL BS37 5AF
• Email: consultation@southglos.gov.uk
• Telephone: 01454868154

Climate change coffee morning

At 10am this Saturday, 29th July, the WWF are holding a Climate Change Coffee morning in the Ridgewood Cafe, Yate. This will be a chance to find out more about the Climate Coalitiion, how climate change is affecting the local community and what action you can take. You can find out more at https://www.facebook.com/events/408149509578801/

See "The Age of Stupid" this Friday

Sustainable Thornbury, a Town in Transition, is screening the environmental/climate change film “The Age of Stupid” at Cossham Hall in Chapel St, Thornbury this Friday (June 19th). It starts at 7.45pm and admission is £3. Refreshments will be available from 7.15pm when the doors open.

Oscar-nominated Pete Postlethwaite (In The Name of the Father, Brassed Off) stars as a man living alone in the devasted world of 2055, looking back at archive footage from 2007 and asking: "Why didn't we stop climate change when we had the chance?"

It will be followed by a Q&A with a panel made up of Steve Webb MP, Paul Ashford (member of the International Panel on Climate Change-IPCC), Ian Page (member of International Futures Forum) and Chris Sunderland (Agora).

Click here for link to trailer for Age of Stupid.

Climate Change - an Oxfam Film

A simple yet compelling short film from Oxfam about climate change and what we can all do about it.

Thanks to Robert Wright's blog for drawing it to our attention.

Ten Green Bloggers

Steve Webb has got together a cross-party group of ten bloggers to try to use the power of the internet to force action on climate change.

Steve says "Our particular focus was on getting the Government's climate change bill amended so that the target for cuts in CO2 emissions by 2050 was not the current rather modest 60% but a bolder 80% - the least that most people think is needed to avoid catastrophic climate change"

Their first step has been to set up a website - www.canvassyourmp.com - to start a campaign to get ‘real people’ to go and see their MP, explain why 80% cuts in C02 by 2050 are needed, and then report back via the website. The website has the contact details of every MP in the country.

The site went live in ‘beta’ version today, 9th June, to coincide with the Second Reading of the Climate Change Bill.

If you live anywhere except Steve's constituency, please use the site to arrange to meet your MP and lobby them. Even if you live in Steve's patch, go to www.canvassyourmp.com anyway and sign up for the newsletter.

You can read more about this on Steve's blog and on Lib Dem Voice.

You can also sign up for our Facebook Group Climate Change - 60% cut is not enough.