Real action on the climate emergency
Cambridge City Council and South Cambridgeshire District Council both declared climate and ecological emergencies in 2019. We must continue to push for effective action appropriate to the scale of the threat. With international agreements on climate change falling far short of what is needed, work at a local level is more important than ever.
Climate justice and social justice are inextricably linked. We support the City Council’s adoption of the Doughnut Economics model (the idea that society must meet everyone’s needs without exceeding the capacity of the earth to support us). We now want to see the concept translated into real action.
A Green City Council would:
- Keep the linked issues of social justice and the climate/ ecological emergencies at the heart of every decision
- Encourage and support businesses and institutions in Cambridge to adopt more ambitious net-zero commitments and implement actions to reach net-zero carbon by 2030 at the latest, in line with the Cambridge Climate Change Charter
- Use its influence to put pressure on large institutions, including the public sector pensions fund and the universities, to break financial ties with the fossil fuel industry
- Help to make Cambridge more resilient to the effects of climate change including by ensuring buildings remain habitable in extremes of weather, and encouraging businesses to include weather extremes in their business continuity strategies
- Take every opportunity to promote awareness of the benefits of, and support a shift towards, more plant-based diets
- In addition to the points under “A Green Transport Revolution” which will reduce overall traffic, accelerate and manage the shift to electric vehicles by installing many more free or low-cost charging points, accessible to existing residents and standard in all new builds, and introducing appropriate safety regulations including clear guidelines on which vehicles can use which routes.
Relevant documents (links to PDFs)
The climate emergency is an overarching theme which guides our policies across all areas of social and environmental justice. See the other pages under ‘What we stand for’ for some specific policies.