A climate emergency has been declared in Gateshead - but the Green Party say it is not enough.
At today's full council meeting, councillors voted in favour of council leader Martin Gannon's motion to declare a state of environmental emergency and commit to a number of drastic measures to be enacted over the next decade.
This means 'Climate Emergency' requiring urgent action in the borough has been declared and the council have committed to make its activities carbon neutral by 2030.
Coun Catherine Donovan said: "There will be irreversible damage to our planet if action isn't taken over the next 10 years.
"Unless we cut down on our use of fossil fuels there will be more heat waves, more wild fires.
"If we don't want our grandchildren fighting for survival on a dead planet we must act."
The authority also wants to use 100% clean energy across all of its functions and ensure that all strategic decisions, budgets and approaches to planning decisions are in line with a shift to zero carbon.
It will also support and work with other agencies towards making the entire area carbon neutral and ensure that political and chief officers embed this work in all areas and take responsibility for reducing, as rapidly as possible, the carbon emissions resulting from the council's activities.
Work with partners across the borough to help deliver this goal through all relevant strategies, plans and shared resources by developing a series of meetings, events and partner workshops.
The council will also "proactively include" young people in the process, making sure they have their say in shaping the future.
It was also call on the central government to provide the powers, resources and help with funding to make this possible, and ask local MPs to do the same.
But the Gateshead Green Party said more is needed and called for the Tyne and Wear pension fund to ditch investments in polluters.
They also called for the council to join a 'climate change convention' involving the Green Party and other environment activists.
But Coun Gannon said most of the points raised by the Green Party were already addressed in the existing motion.
He said: "A large number of the points raised in this letter from the Green Party are contained in the motion to council, we reach out to everybody on this issue, we need to work together."
"By 2030 we will reach a tipping point meaning climate change won't be able to be reversed."
