Knox Council vows to fight climate change
Knox Council has vowed to take action to fight climate change, but has stopped short of declaring a climate emergency. A passionate action group is calling on the council to do as much as it can to address the growing problem.
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Knox Council has recognised we are in a state of serious climate and environment change – but stopped short of declaring a climate emergency.
The Knox Climate Action Now group presented a petition with almost 2000 signatures at a recent council meeting calling on the council to declare a climate emergency.
Instead councillors recognised “we are in a state of serious climate and environment change.”
Cr Jake Keogh, then mayor, said in making the statement the council was committing to taking practical action to preserve the natural environment, working with all levels of government, industry and community to protect the environment from further destruction.
The council said it had already taken action to enhance its sustainability and environmental practices including recent large-scale energy reduction projects such as street-light replacement.
A report from officers will be prepared by January 2020 outlining the potential options available to the council for preparing a new Climate Response Plan.
Knox Climate Action Now spokesman Andrew McKernan said the group wanted to emphasise small actions to address climate change were no longer acceptable.
“The small measures that have been made in the past are nowhere near strong enough,” Mr McKernan said.
“Council can do a lot more than just energy action as well, that’s the main thing we want to get across.
“The fact that this has to be addressed at every level of council’s organisation, every department; energy is very important but it’s not the whole picture.”
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Mr McKernan has a science background, and said he was frustrated with the lack of focus on climate change.
“I think the whole energy debate has swallowed up action on climate,” he said.
“Climate change is not coming, it’s happened, it’s here now and it’s just going to continue to get worse.”
He said the group would review the reports that came back to the council to make sure that the actions were followed through in a strong and meaningful way.