The call went out at the weekend for Hastings to become a carbon neutral town by 2030 and for Hastings Borough Council (HBC) to declare a ‘climate emergency’ now.

Hastings and Rye Green Party launched its call at the weekend and were out in force in the town centre on Saturday morning urging people to endorse an open letter to the council on the issue.

In October 2018 the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warned that the world has only 12 years to take effective action on climate change if global warming is to be limited to 1.5ºC. Many towns and cities around the UK have already declared a climate emergency including London, Bristol, Scarborough, Kirklees and Brighton.

Almost 500 individuals, as well as groups including Hastings City of Sanctuary, Hastings Sustainable Transport Group, Hastings Quakers and Energise Sussex Coast, have already signed the letter calling on HBC to declare an emergency. The letter can be found at http://tinyurl.com/hastingsclimate

Hastings Green Party spokesperson Julia Hilton said: “Limiting global warming to 1.5ºC must be at the forefront of all decision-making from now on. We need a citizens’ assembly in Hastings to generate local ideas for combating climate breakdown and to devise a path to achieving community-wide carbon-neutrality by 2030. We hope the council will take the lead in bringing this about.”

HBC will be debating whether to declare a climate emergency at their meeting at Muriel Matters House at 6pm on February 13th and the local Green Party hopes members of the public will attend that meeting to show their support.

• For further information please click on the following links
• www.hastings.greenparty.org.uk/
• www.ipcc.ch/2018/10/08/summary-for-policymakers-of-ipcc-special-report-on-global-warming-of-1-5c-approved-by-governments/
• www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/dec/11/london-mayor-sadiq-khan-city-climate-emergency
• https://tinyurl.com/hastingsclimate
  (number shown does not include signatories collected on paper).