EMOTIONS ran high at the county council yesterday during a debate to declare a climate change emergency.

Hundreds of protestors made their feelings known, packing the chamber to hear the debate. Eventually an amended motion was passed but it removed the plea to declare an 'emergency'.

In truth, climate change is already an emergency, and one where action isn’t being taken quickly enough. We forget so quickly that last year set some very unwarranted records globally, with record high temperatures including in our part of the world.

The science can’t be disputed, so at this point it is all about the will to make changes. If we want to prevent more extreme weather events in the future (and surely we all want that) we have to look at doing everything we can, at all levels of government and as individuals.

Setting a target of making the authority carbon neutral by 2030 could have made a difference, but councillors argued that target was “unreasonable.”

Trouble is if we don’t starting setting tough targets now, we won’t ever succeed in preventing a global disaster.

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