Over 12,000 Call on Wandsworth Council to Declare Climate Emergency
Wandsworth Green Party hand over biggest and most important environmental petition in borough’s history
Image: Fergal McEntee
Climate activists from Wandsworth were joined today by children, residents and scientists to present a petition signed by over 12,000 people calling on Wandsworth Council to declare a climate emergency. The petitioners are asking the council to recognise the serious impact climate change will have on the local, national and international communities, and develop a specific plan of action to make Wandsworth carbon neutral by 2030. The petition has been organised by residents in conjunction with Wandsworth Green Party.
The Scottish Government, Welsh Assembly, Westminster Parliament, Bristol, Manchester and London, along with many other local councils have already declared climate emergencies and pledged to reduce their carbon emissions in line with recent recommendations from the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (1).
Constituency Lead, for Putney & Southfields Wandsworth Green Party, Di McCann told this website: "Since the petition started in early February, Extinction Rebellion, Greta Thunberg and Sir David Attenborough have catapulted the climate crisis into the mainstream news almost every day. Ordinary people are talking about it like never before and demanding that our politicians act because the issues are too big for individuals to solve by their actions alone. We know this because 12,300 people have signed this petition.’
image: Fergal McEntee
The event was attracted a large crowd with speakers from the local Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth as well as Extinction Rebellion. Maia, the daughter of the lead petitioner, Glyn Goodwin, also made a moving appeal to councillors on behalf of the children of Wandsworth.
“The scale of this emergency is clear,” said Glyn Goodwin, one of the organisers of the petition. “We want to work with Wandsworth Council to do their bit to start reducing carbon emissions. In an emergency, we must come together to act for the greater good – climate change is not just something that will happen to other people, we here in Wandsworth will suffer too if nothing is done to tackle it.”
Many signatories to the petition are under 18, something that has been allowed by the council petition office in this instance as future generations are likely to be affected by climate change. The threshold for ensuring a petition will be discussed by a full meeting of the council is 10,000 – a high target which was exceeded due to the dedication of the volunteer team and recognition by the public of the need of the seriousness of the issue.
“We need to take drastic action to prevent this emergency,” said Sandra Brady, a volunteer who helped collect the signatures. “But there is huge support for this in Wandsworth. I had parents at a local primary school queuing to sign their names and thanking me for doing this. They want Wandsworth to help ensure their children and grandchildren don’t suffer because of our inaction now.”
‘I support this petition utterly and completely and call on our local elected representatives to unanimously accept that climate and ecological breakdown can be reversed by making huge efforts at local level.
May 8, 2019