Hythe & Dibden Parish Council Declares Climate Emergency
Published: 29 January 2020
What is a climate and nature emergency and why do we need one?

The recent 2018 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report on Climate Change which is summarised
HERE, states that there is already a human-caused 1°C rise in global temperature. The difference between the impacts of global warming of 2˚C and 1.5˚C is much greater than previously thought and we are currently heading for a catastrophic 3˚C rise. To reverse this, we need to get to Zero Carbon emissions by 2030.
Growing numbers of parish, town and county councils are declaring a Climate Emergency. This is a genuine commitment to work towards a specific measurable target. It might seem that a Parish Council can’t really do much, but Climate change is relevant to many of our activities…
This Council will be investigating initiatives to operate in a greener way and support the community in making the small choices that combined make a big difference.
This proposal provides justification to treat climate change as a factor in future decision making.
All levels of government national, regional and local, have a duty to secure our community from the negative impacts of climate breakdown. Local government should not wait for national government to change their policies.
Hythe & Dibden Parish Council declared a climate emergency at Full Council on 18th December 2019.
Chairman of Hythe and Dibden Parish Council Malcolm Wade said “Hythe and Dibden Parish council recognise we all have a responsibility and a role to play in reducing carbon emissions to help save the environment for future generations. By declaring a Climate Emergency, the Council are committing itself to do all they can to reduce the Authority’s carbon footprint to a carbon-neutral position asap and showing the leadership in fighting climate change in our community “