Green focus column from Sigurd Reimers

Next week it will be three years since our two councils declared a climate emergency. A public consultation was carried out by Somerset Climate Action Network ten months later, and Somerset County Council and the four District Councils finally published their Climate Change Strategy in November 2020.

Effective action does need good planning, but plans and actions are not the same thing. Climate Emergency UK will return next year to look at how well the proposed plans are being carried out. By then there will only be seven years left until Somerset should have reached its stated aim (by 2030) of Net Zero.

Climate action plans are often notoriously vague; in the case of some oil companies they are often deliberately misleading. The test of promises of reduction in greenhouse gas emissions lies, not in grand promises, but in answering the questions “how much?” and “how soon?”

The direct contribution by Councils to emitting greenhouse gases is quite small, about 2-5%. However, if you include the ability of Councils to regulate, encourage, subsidize, and influence through local partnerships, this figure rises to more than 33%.

Sadly, though, Council decisions can be overturned by Government, as we saw last week in North Somerset in relation to Bristol Airport. The climate clock is ticking. A rise of 1.5 degrees C in the climate since the Industrial Revolution, is the maximum that the earth can tolerate without climate collapse.

Such a collapse will not happen overnight, but it is a sobering thought that, on present indications, we, including our councils, have about seven years to sort this out. Some of us will be in Taunton High Street on the morning of February 19 talking with the public about this.