Given last autumn’s UN Report on Climate Change warning that humanity has but 11 years to prevent catastrophic global warming, We the undersigned call on North Tyneside Council to declare a Climate Emergency, and: 

1. Commit to making North Tyneside borough carbon neutral by 2030
2. Set specific targets to reduce carbon emissions in all council activities and spheres of influence including housing, transport, domestic waste
3. Provide an initial report on progress towards these targets in 6 months and thereafter annually
4. Include carbon reduction implications in all policy decision-making 
5. End Council investment in fossil fuels within 3 years, and call for staff pension fund divestment in the same.

Why is this important?

We are in the midst of an ongoing Climate Emergency and North Tyneside Borough Council currently has no adequate overarching strategy to respond to this, which is a serious dereliction of duty to the residents of North Tyneside.

Recent actions by students and campaigners throughout the UK and worldwide have shown that the public is increasingly conscious that the current Climate Emergency is an immediate threat to our way of life. The UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report this autumn warned that humanity has just 11 years left to take emergency action in order to prevent catastrophic climate breakdown. Failure to act now means the risks to humanity from floods, droughts, extreme heat and growing poverty, including here in the UK, become much greater, and will negatively affect hundreds of millions more people across the globe.

At present, the world appears more than likely to be on course for greater than 2°C of warming – this will be catastrophic for humanity, risking the collapse of recognisable civilisation.

The Climate Change Act committed the UK to 80% cuts in greenhouse gases by 2050; even to meet this target and the UK’s obligations under the Paris Agreement requires far stronger action from local as well as national government – however it is increasingly clear that many areas will have to achieve even more than that.

Coastal areas such as North Tyneside face a specific and enhanced potential impact from climate change, and North Tyneside should therefore be leading the way in measures to combat climate change, not lagging behind the ever increasing numbers of other UK councils who have now declared a Climate Emergency, and are setting local targets more ambitious that those laid out in national policy.

How it will be delivered:

This petition will be delivered to North Tyneside Borough Council by a member of North Tyneside Borough Green Party. If a petition receives more than 1000 signatures North Tyneside Council’s policy states that they will provide a response from a senior officer to a public meeting, or with 2000 signatures the full council may debate this petition; albeit we will call upon councillors to take immediate action which need not wait for these thresholds to be met.