On the 8th of October 2018, the United Nation’s International Panel on Climate Change released a vital report warning that if the planet warmed by 1.5 degrees C there would be devastating consequences including loss of coral reefs and extreme weather such as heatwaves, floods and storms. Sir David Attenborough has drawn public attention to the threat this will have on organised human society and wildlife in general.

We are already seeing the increased wildfires such as in California releasing huge amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, deadly droughts in Australia and floods in Asia. The report describes how warming beyond 1.5 degrees C would be catastrophic and states that we have 10-12 years to make the fundamental changes required to avoid the worst of these outcomes.

In November 2018, the councils of Bristol and Manchester passed motions declaring a ‘ climate emergency’ and setting targets to become carbon neutral. Since then around 20 councils across the U.K. have done the same. We call on Carlisle City Council to recognise the urgency required to develop appropriate policies to tackle climate change and prioritise this above all else by joining this movement to meet the climate crisis head on.

We the undersigned petition Carlisle City Council to:

1. Declare a ‘Climate Emergency’.
2. Pledge to make the city of Carlisle carbon neutral by 2025 taking into account both production and consumption emissions.
3. To appoint Citizens Assemblies to develop the policies to deliver this target.
4. Call on Westminster to provide the powers and resources to make the 2025 target possible.
5. Report to full council within 6 months with the actions the council will take to address this emergency.

References:

1- IPCC’s Special report on Global Warming of 1.5 degrees (2018) https://www.ipcc.ch/report/sr15/

2- World Resources Institute:https//www.wri.org/blog/2018/10/8-things-you-need-know-about-ipcc-15-c-report

3- Zero Carbon Britain Report: Making it happen(2017)https://www.zerocarbonbritain.org/en/

4- Scope 1,2 and 3 of Greenhouse Gas Protocol explained:https//www.carbontrust.com/resources/faqs/services/scope-3-indirect-carbon-emissions