At a meeting of the Council on 1 July Members voted to approve a motion to support the Climate and Ecological Emergency Bill (CEE).

The bill, if passed, will require the Government to develop an emergency strategy to tackle climate change.

Members voted to support the proposal which was proposed by Cllr Elizabeth Wainwright and supported by Cllr Colin Slade.

Cllr Slade, Cabinet Member for Environment and Climate Change, said: “At MDDC we are making steady progress to realise our ambition to become carbon neutral by 2030 but we recognise this is just a small fraction of the work that needs to be done to really impact climate change. Every tool that helps us to tackle climate change and support sustainability is something our Members and the communities they serve will welcome.”

As part of its backing of the bill the Council will now be contacting the district’s MPs asking for their approval in Parliament, as well as pledging their support to the bill’s organiser, CEE Bill Alliance.

Cllr Wainwright said: “I am delighted this motion has cross-party support and that we can now formally pledge our approval for this bill. If the bill itself is supported by Parliament it will provide the tools and levers needed to tackle the climate and biodiversity crisis more effectively. With these tools in place it will make our goals to implement work such as the Devon Carbon Plan more achievable. I am also grateful to local community groups like Sustainable Tiverton and Sustainable Crediton – they have provided the expertise and drive to put this motion before Council, amongst other things.”

The bill before Parliament states:

• that the UK plays its fair and proper role in reducing greenhouse gas emissions consistent with limiting global temperature increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial temperatures;
• ensures that all the UK’s consumption emissions are accounted for;
• includes emissions from aviation and shipping;
• protects and restores biodiverse habitats along overseas supply chains;
• restores and regenerates the UK’s depleted soils, wildlife habitats and species populations to healthy and robust states, maximising their capacity to absorb CO2 and their resistance to climate heating;
• sets up an independent Citizens’ Assembly, representative of the UK’s population, to engage with Parliament and Government and help develop the emergency strategy.

Full details of the Full Council meeting and minutes.  

Notes

Full details of the bill is available from Climate and Ecological Emergency Bill (ceebill.uk).

The Climate and Ecological Emergency Bill is a Private Member's Bill that was initially presented in the UK Parliament in September 2020 by Caroline Lucas MP, along with supporting MPs from seven political parties.

You can read more about Private Member's Bills on this website

The new parliamentary session for 2021-22 began on 11 May 2021, and the CEE Bill was reintroduced as a Presentation Bill at the earliest opportunity, on 21 June 2021.