What can the mayor do for the planet?
We’re facing a climate emergency, the biggest threat we’ve ever seen to humanity’s existence. With extreme weather raging around the world, including flooding and extreme heat in the UK, acting on solutions in all our communities is essential.
How we build and manage our towns and cities is a crucial part of this, not only in actively reducing the climate impact of our transport and energy, but in showing national government where our priorities are, what can be done, and how we expect them to echo those nationally and internationally.
The Mayor of West of England has important powers they can use in ensuring the West of England is as climate and nature friendly as possible. The good news is, we have a plan for how they can achieve that.
We need the mayor to commit to:
- Ensuring all infrastructure plans, programmes and investment decisions – including COVID-19 recovery plans – are in line with what’s needed to address the climate and ecological emergency, and in line with the region’s carbon budget and carbon reduction pathway.
- Ensuring those impacted most by climate breakdown and nature loss are heard and centre-stage in decision-making.
- Protecting workers and communities through a just transition from a fossil fuel-dependent economy to a low-carbon, nature-rich, circular economy, including delivering over 14,000 new jobs.
- Introducing policies and measures that ensure new development is net zero carbon and existing homes are brought up to high energy-standards, and addressing fuel poverty.
- At least doubling public transport use, cycling and walking within the next 10 years, to cut emissions and ensure everyone can breathe clean air.
- Powering the region with clean, renewable energy, reaping the economic and job opportunities that this brings.
- Greening the region by increasing tree cover, protecting nature, and eliminating green-space deprivation.
- Becoming a zero-waste region by 2030 without relying on landfill or incineration, to reduce pressures on nature from resource extraction and pollution.
- Calling on the local government pension scheme to divest from fossil fuels, to stop profiting from environmental harm.
- Initiating a massive green-retrofit skills training programme to create the workforce to make all our homes net zero carbon.
Ask your mayor to build a fairer, greener future.