How council will fight potentially disastrous impact of climate change

TOWN Hall chiefs are set to approve a climate emergency action plan for Warrington to protect the borough from the potentially disastrous impact of climate change.

Members of the borough council’s cabinet will be asked to adopt the action plan at their meeting next Tuesday (May 23)

The plan has three main goals:
1. For the council to be net zero for greenhouse gas emissions with respect to its operations by 2030.
2. A resilient council: The aim to adapt to the impacts of changes in the climate that are already unavoidable
3. To support wider efforts to address the climate crisis to enable the borough as a whole to be near carbon zero by no later than 2041.
The council has a long track record of working to address climate change. In 2019 it declared a climate emergency and then set up the Warrington Climate Emergency Commission which has since developed a climate emergency strategy.
Every council department has contributed to the action plan and the council’s known greenhouse gas emission have fallen by half since 2014-15, according to a report to be considered by the cabinet
A wide range of actions are being considered to reduce carbon emissions, including council staff car sharing, staff use of bicycles and e-bikes and electric pool cars.
High standards will be set for new building projects and there are plans to modernikse older homes across the borough.

New active travel schemes and workplace, school and residential travel plans are proposed.
Local solar farms will also be considered.
But the climate change action plan is to be a “live” document which will be updated every three or six months.
Failure to respond to the climate emergency would result in potentially catastrophic impacts in Warrington and elsewhere, says the report.

Cabinet members will be told Warrington must prepare for warmer wetter winters, hotter summers with longer dry spells, and more storm conditions. It also means building resilience to wider shocks to the system that result from changes to the climate across the world , such as changing patterns of disease, supply chain disruptions and impacts on food security.
“To address the ecological emergency we need to help stop runaway climate change and help nature recover by ensuring local semi-natural habitats and ecosystems are protected and by making more space and conditions for nature to flourish”, the report adds.