Issue - meetings

Motions approved at Council do not bind the Cabinet but may influence future decisions of the Cabinet.

On a motion from Councillor Jess David, seconded by Councillor Paul May, it was

RESOLVED unanimously that

Council acknowledges that:

1.  On 10 October 2019, the Council’s Climate Emergency Progress Report recognised the ecological emergency, noting specifically: species extinction, loss of habitat and the connectivity of habitats, decline in the pollinators that are crucial to food supply, and the loss of and decline in the health and quantity of soil.  The Council recognised that the climate and ecological emergencies are both the result of over-exploitation of the earth’s resources and poor land management.

2.  The report recognised the long and strong history of work on biodiversity, landscape and ecology in Bath and North East Somerset, including a range of strategies, partnerships and projects, both at local and West of England level that are delivering action related to the ecological emergency.

3.  In late 2018, the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) issued their special report raising the alarm and calling for much more radical and rapid action to reduce carbon emissions from the burning of fossil fuels to avert climate catastrophe, which inspired the School Strikes 4 Climate and Extinction Rebellion and has resulted in over two thirds of UK local authorities declaring a Climate Emergency.

4.  In May 2019, the UN’s Intergovernmental Science Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) similarly raised the alarm about the urgent ecological emergency the world also faces.  The UK’s State of Nature 2019 report also highlights the critical decline in biodiversity in the UK.

5.  The survival of our society and economy depends absolutely on the health of the natural environment and ecosystems, providing, for example, clean water and air, food, timber, flood protection, mental and physical health and well-being and, as is now being recognised, carbon sequestration.

6.  In terms of the relationship between the climate and ecological emergencies, both the IPCC and the UK’s Climate Change Committee make clear that whilst reducing carbon from fossil fuels is the top priority for tackling the climate emergency, it is also necessary to find ways to increase carbon absorption, or sequestration, by the natural environment, by, for example, tree planting, peatland restoration, different methods of land management and improved agricultural practices that enable carbon to be drawn down into the soil on a large scale.

7.  The October Council report recognised Bath and North East Somerset has an opportunity to increase the sequestration of carbon by trees, grassland and soil, and that further work would be needed, involving a range of stakeholders in order to balance this complex set of natural environment issues:

a.  Increasing biodiversity and protection of habitats and species, including key pollinators and other insects;

b.  Increasing carbon sequestration;

c.  Increasing soil quality and quantity, reducing chemical fertilisers and pesticides and preventing soil erosion;

d.  Increasing local food production, utilising local productive capacity, through less intensive agricultural methods, as a number of local farmers already do;

e.  Increasing flood defence, natural flood mitigation measures, natural shading as the climate  ...  view the full minutes text for item 23