Shropshire leader joins summit call for power shift climate change effort
Senior regional leaders are joining forces at a summit calling for more efforts to tackle climate change in communities.
Shropshire Council leader Lezley Picton and West Midlands Mayor Andy Street are among 32 calling for a ‘power shift’ from the government to allow local and regional councils do carry out programmes to shape energy market and tackle home and office emissions.
They will join forces at the International Net Zero Local Leadership Summit featuring ministers, 40 mayors and leaders including the Mayor of Los Angeles in Birmingham on Tuesday(13.
Shropshire Council leader Lezley Picton said: “Climate change represents a significant strategic risk to the county and to the delivery of the full range of council services. Addressing the impact of climate change has been adopted as one of the council’s key operational principles and is being embedded as a normal part of the council’s corporate governance systems.
“Although the our own operations account for only around on per cent of Shropshire’s carbon footprint, we’re working in partnership with many local businesses and communities to develop a wide range of carbon management projects and initiatives which will help them to reduce their contribution to the carbon footprint of the wider county, as well as ‘leading by example’ by improving our own performance.”
Partly led by Mr Street the summit is being compared to the Paris City Hall Declaration in 2015 which paved the way for the Paris Climate Agreement.
West Midlands Mayor Andy Street said: “Climate change is a global emergency, and we know that every region and city across the world is going to have to play their part in tackling it.
"That’s why I’m really pleased that the West Midlands, in partnership with UK100, has been able to bring local leaders together today to discuss our role in this looming crisis. Here in the UK, the Government has set out ambitious targets to achieve net zero by 2050, and we want the West Midlands to play its part in that by meeting our net zero target by 2041.
“As part of our #WM2041 net zero plans we’re already delivering practical change – from decarbonised transport and energy system solutions, to state-of-the-art battery technology and zero-carbon building techniques. Now, alongside other UK leaders, we’re asking ministers to give us the powers and the funding to do more. We want to work hand-in-glove with Government to accelerate the drive to Net Zero.”
Organised under the UK 100 group, the campaigners claim that in the West Midlands demand for more than 40,000 construction and property jobs could be created as a result of a new green economy.
