East Sussex County Council debates proposal to abolish net zero target
Scrutiny committees to review draft climate strategy
County council leaders have put forward proposals to abolish a net zero target.
On Tuesday (September 29), East Sussex County Council’s cabinet invited the authority’s scrutiny committees to consider the Reform UK administration’s draft climate strategy.
If adopted, it would see the authority abolish its voluntary commitment to becoming carbon neutral ‘as soon as possible or by 2050’.
This had been adopted by the council in 2019, when councillors voted in favour of a motion declaring a climate emergency.
Council leader Andy Woolley (Reform UK) said: “Let’s be clear: although l could have taken this straight to council for a vote in a few weeks time — a vote I believe I could have won — I am not doing that and I am not looking for a decision to be adopted around this draft policy at this stage.
“We are keen to hear scrutiny’s views before proceeding and that is the purpose of the report being presented to cabinet today.”
In a report, officers say the proposed strategy, if adopted, would represent “a substantive change” of the council’s policy position.
They say it would replace the council’s voluntary net zero deadline with “an approach based on statutory compliance, measurable energy efficiency, affordable emissions reduction and climate resilience”.
It says the county council would only continue with “energy efficiency and emissions reduction activity … where affordable, cost-effective, externally funded, legally required or operationally justified”.
The report says the council has commissioned modelling which ‘estimated that emission reductions could require investment of more than £200 million to 2050.’
Cllr Kathryn Field, leader of the council’s Liberal Democrat group, argued against the removal of the net zero target.
She said: “We have seen in our whole targeting process on this council that having a stretched target mean people work towards it. We might not necessarily achieve it, but it is the journey that is important, not the end result, in my opinion.”
She added: “We should be working incredibly hard to reduce carbon emissions from this council because that way we will make ourselves resilient.
“We will make ourselves resilient, to an extent, against the things we can change, like the effects of climate change, the effects of flooding and the effects of fire. If we do nothing, that won’t happen.”
Green Party councillor Christina Coleman said: “This harvest is the worst on record, we’ve had the driest July on record.
“We know these harvests are more likely to be the case in the future … climate change is absolutely destroying our health, it is leading to global insecurity, it is leading to wars and we are becoming an ungovernable state. The future is not looking good.
“So to renounce the idea of this not being an emergency and to pretend it is not happening is a dereliction of duty.”
But the proposed strategy also saw support from Conservative group leader Paul Redstone.
He said: “Net zero is an ideal that I would support if it was possible, but it isn’t affordable.”
He added: “In summary, I very much support the approach. I think it is great that it goes to scrutiny, but we should separate climate resilience and adaptation from reducing council emissions.
“We need to look at the cost effectiveness in terms of CO2 saved per pound spent and we should review our policy on replacement of boilers and similar systems in council buildings.”
Cllr Redstone’s comments were welcomed by Cllr Woolley, who said: “Obviously it comes down to a difference of opinion and political views on some of these things.
“I was pleased to hear from Cllr Redstrone that we balanced up the argument of the Green agenda and ideology against what is actually real and happening in the world today; not the world we might imagine in our heads.”