Scarborough activists call on council to do more to tackle climate change

A group of climate change activists is calling on Scarborough Borough Council to make more effort to combat global warming and reduce carbon emissions.
Climate change activists will hold a demonstration this afternoon outside the Town Hall.Climate change activists will hold a demonstration this afternoon outside the Town Hall.
Climate change activists will hold a demonstration this afternoon outside the Town Hall.

Extinction Rebellion Scarborough are urging councillors to declare a climate emergency and are inviting the public to join them today at 1.30pm on the Town Hall steps to do so.

At today’s full council meeting, elected representatives will debate a motion proposed by Cllr Dilys Cluer of the Green Party to not only declare an emergency but commit to the borough going carbon-neutral.

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Councillors in Bristol have already backed such a landmark resolution and other councils, such as Lancashire, could soon follow suit.

A spokesperson for Extinction Rebellion Scarborough said: “We, and the Greens, believe that human-caused climate change is a real and direct threat to the existence of life on earth and if current trends continue, we risk ‘runaway climate change’ – not in the distant future, but in our lifetimes.

“This is not us being ‘alarmist’, and we are far from alone in sounding this warning.

“At the recent global climate summit, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said failure to take action to limit global warming was both ‘immoral and suicidal’.

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“Leading climate scientists believe we have just 12 years to dramatically change course, and Sir David Attenborough warned of the collapse of civilisation itself if we do not.

“Such warnings should not paralyse us – but we cannot act alone. Therefore we call on all concerned citizens to demand our leaders take the action of which they seem incapable and work with us, not against us.”

As part of the motion to Scarborough Council, the Greens are asking the local authority to do everything within its power to make the borough of Scarborough carbon-neutral by 2030, and to call on Westminster to provide the powers and resources to make the target possible.

Cllr Cluer’s proposal also includes working with other governments, councils and agencies to determine and implement best practice methods to limit global warming to less than 1.5 degrees Celsius, and the appointment of a dedicated officer to champion the council’s goal across all departments.

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She said: “The consequences of global temperature rising above 1.5°C are so severe that preventing this from happening must be humanity’s number one priority.”

The group are asking residents to email their councillors to urge them to back this motion.