Mid Sussex Greens call for more effort to reduce carbon emissions after ‘code red’ warning in IPCC report

They submitted the motion on Wednesday (September 29) when the council met in person for the first time in months.

The motion resolved to ‘intensify efforts to reduce carbon emissions throughout the district; to take a lead in helping residents to reduce their own carbon footprint; and to play its full part in the national effort to achieve net zero by 2035’.

“The IPCC 6th report has been described by the UN as ‘Code Red for Humanity’,” said councillor Paul Brown (Green, High Weald) in a speech proposing the motion.

He said the report concludes that climate change is happening everywhere and affecting everyone.

“On the eve of the COP26 conference in Glasgow, this motion is about not just implementing legislation but going further, asking more of the council’s suppliers and stakeholders,” he added.

A Lib-Dem amendment to include the Friends of the Earth Sustainability Checklist for councils was accepted by the Greens and added to the motion.

A spokesperson for the Green and Burgess-Hill-Independent group of Mid-Sussex District Council said the Conservative party ‘voted the whole thing down’ and criticised them for preferring a ‘business-as-usual approach’.

“We take issue with the assertion that MSDC are doing enough already,” said councillor Anne Eves (Leylands Ward, Burgess Hill).

“Where are the new public electric vehicle charging points which we were promised three years ago? Where is the food-waste collection pilot?”

She added: “Assertions that our district has a lower per capita carbon footprint than the national average only apply because we have no heavy industry here.”

“We need to demonstrate more ambition and a sense of urgency,” she said.