A CALL to make Redditch Borough Council carbon neutral is to be considered at the authority’s full council meeting in April.
The appeal comes from local support group Eco n Wise, an organisation so dedicated to tackling plastic waste and boosting recycling that it has received a nomination for a Climate Coalition ‘Green Heart Hero Award’.
“By promoting going carbon neutral the aim is to see if the council will declare a ‘climate emergency’,” said Crabbs Cross resident Claire Davies of Eco n Wise.
“To date about 20 local authorities have done so, generally aiming to be carbon neutral by 2030, achieving this by looking at their transportation, energy efficiency, waste disposal and recycling.”
To become carbon neutral the Borough Council would have to take action – like planting trees – to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by the same amount as it produces.
Speaking on the day it was revealed that a steep decline in in the number of insects – at a rate of extinction eight times faster than that of mammals, birds and reptiles – threatened ‘catastrophe’ for the planet, Claire added: “We have got to get more creative to think our way out of this situation.
“Nationally we have fracking and now they’re drilling for oil off Bournemouth when they refused a windfarm there.
“If national government is not going to do anything about it then we have to do something locally.”
Meanwhile members of Eco n Wise are planning to go down to the Palace of Westminster after being nominated in the ‘Inspirational Community Project’ category of the Climate Coalition’s awards.
“I must admit I spent a few minutes checking the news to see if it was true,” said Claire.
“However someone definitely nominated us and a few of us will be going down to London for the event.”
