The way Trafford should respond to the climate emergency has been released in a report - but the document has been slammed as ‘not fit for purpose’.
The report, which took hours of council officers’ and consultants’ time to produce and was hailed by one Labour executive member as ‘a good news story’, has been described as ‘stark’ by the borough's Green Party’s leader.
The document states that in seven years, Trafford will have used up its entire carbon budget. It calls for a massive 13.4 per cent reduction in emissions each year.
It lays out Trafford’s current carbon budget; identifies key organisations which will need to work towards the shared aim of reducing emissions in the borough; sets out the connections between the council, other organisations and residents; and shows the ways in which organisations can work together with the shared aim of reducing emissions.
Specific actions and policies that will be needed to achieve the huge reduction is carbon emissions is yet to be decided.
Coun Geraldine Coggins, Trafford’s Green Party leader, said she is not convinced.
She said: "This research brings us face-to-face with the stark reality of the climate crisis, here in Trafford.
"We now know that in only seven years, we will have used up our carbon budget. The experts have looked in detail at Trafford and this is the reality we face, the council must act now.
"The council’s draft action plan in response to this emergency is not fit for purpose. We need hard numbers and dates. We need a route, not just a direction.
"And we need a much greater level of commitment. This can’t be done ‘when the bins are sorted’ or ‘after the pandemic’. There must be no more delays.
"The report specifically says that the window for action is rapidly closing and that the council must be more proactive. It says the council must make this a higher priority than they have in the past.
"These are the words of the objective external experts, not the Green Party.”
Coun Coggins also criticised the report for failing to account for indirect emissions, such as food consumption and manufacturing.
The Green Party group leader has called for a ‘build back better’ approach, which sees lives improved as we come out of the COVID crisis, with an emphasis on lessening inequality and ‘radically reducing our emissions’.
Her group also wants to see the council stop investing money in the shared pension scheme across Greater Manchester, which currently holds shares in fossil fuel companies including Shell and BP.
In response to Coun Coggins’ concerns, Coun Stephen Adshead, Labour executive member for the environment said at yesterday’s executive meeting that work was to begin immediately with group meetings already scheduled to decide on what exact steps to take.
He argued carbon off-setting was not necessarily enough to tackle the problem, but that it and other options would all form part of the strategy.
