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Bristol’s Green Councillors and MP are celebrating significant progress on tackling climate change as the city marks the 8th anniversary of the city being the first in Europe to declare a climate emergency.
The declaration was passed by Bristol City Council on the 13th of November 2018 and was brought by Carla Denyer MP, who was a councillor at the time.
As a city, Bristol has reduced carbon emissions by 56% overall and 62% per person between 2005 and 2023 – higher than the national average.
Bristol City Council, led by the Green Party, also recently announced that the council’s own carbon emissions have been reduced by 75 per cent in just ten years. This represents one of the largest, or possibly the largest reduction achieved by any local authority across the UK.
Cllr Abi Finch, Chair of the Environment and Sustainability Committee said, “When Bristol became the first city in the UK and Europe to declare a climate emergency, we set ourselves an ambitious challenge: to take meaningful action to cut carbon emissions and create a cleaner, greener and healthier future for everyone.
“As a Green led council, we have led from the front – we’re not going to ask Bristol to do things we wouldn’t do ourselves because we know that we’re all in this together.
“We will continue to make sure we are decarbonising as fast as we can, to show other cities and the world how it’s done.”
Reducing the carbon emissions from the council has been achieved through several significant pieces of work:
City Leap, a 20-year partnership between the council and Amaresco UK which will deliver nearly £500 million into low carbon energy infrastructure, such as solar, wind, heat networks, heat pumps and energy efficiency measures, has and will continue to have a significant impact. [1]
Bristol also recently became the first British city to impose a ban on the advertising of fast fashion, SUVs and airlines. [2]
Carla Denyer MP said, “It’s fantastic to see my Green colleagues in Bristol City Council once again leading the way on climate action.
“As a Councillor I brought the motion to declare a Climate Emergency eight years ago, and two years ago Bristol Central elected me as Bristol’s first-ever Green MP.
“Now, every day in Parliament, I and the other Green MPs hold the Government to account, pushing this Labour Government towards real tangible action.
“But they are not going far enough, fast enough. Decarbonising is vital not only to reduce emissions, but also to protect everyone from fluctuating fossil fuel prices in an increasingly unstable world.
“Bristol is demonstrating what Greens can achieve in power, and with the increasing extreme weather events, there has never been a more vital time to get Greens into government across the country.”
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