The following open letter has been sent to all 49 of the current Councillors on East Sussex County Council:
From cyclones in Mozambique to fires in California we’re already seeing the deadly impact of 1ºC of global warming, particularly in the Global South.
Moreover, the window for limiting global warming to 1.5ºC is rapidly closing and doing so will require dramatic cuts in carbon emissions over the next ten years. Failure to do so will lead to calamitous impacts for some of the world’s poorest people.
Yet to date, the actions taken – and the commitments made – by national and local governments here in the UK are failing to deliver the ‘rapid, far-reaching and unprecedented changes in all aspects of society’ that the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change says are required to achieve this goal.
For example, East Sussex County Council (ESCC) has declared a ‘climate emergency’ but is still investing local people’s pensions in fossil fuels (oil, coal and gas) and has only formulated a plan to de-carbonise its own activities by 2050, rather than the activities of the entire County, its people, business and services.
Continue reading ‘You’ve declared an emergency. It’s now time to start acting like you mean it.’ – An open letter to East Sussex County Council