Has Coventry ever declared a climate emergency and does it matter?
The UN Secretary General writes “We are on a fast track to climate disaster. Major cities under water. Unprecedented heatwaves. Terrifying storms. Widespread water shortages. The extinction of a million species of plants and animals. This is not fiction or exaggeration. It is what science tells us will result from our current energy policies.”
So you might wonder has Coventry City Council ever declared a climate emergency and does it matter?
Coventry Councillor Jim O’Boyle, who is responsible among other things for Climate Change, has repeatedly claimed that Coventry has already declared a climate emergency.
To establish whether this claim is justified, Coventry Climate Action Network (CovCAN) organiser, Philip Brown, explores the following questions:
- What does it mean to Declare a Climate Emergency?
- Has Coventry ever declared one?
- If it has, where is Coventry’s Climate Action Plan to deal with the emergency?
Philip concludes that Coventry has never declared a climate emergency and he then examines the following questions:
- Why hasn’t Coventry declared one?
- Does it matter?
- Is the city ever likely to declare one?
- What can be done about this situation?