Wirral Council declared an Environment and Climate Emergency at a meeting of full council on 15 July 2019 and through this committed to action to address the ecological and climate crisis that we face.
The commitment to action aims to:
- cut climate damaging pollution locally in line with global targets, whilst developing resilience to more extreme weather patterns and rising sea levels that impact Wirral
- protect and enhance biodiversity
As a local authority, we can have a positive influence through:
- how we organise our operations and services
- the regulations and policies we set
- the goods and services we buy
- the investments we make
- the example we set to others.
Tackling the ecological and climate crisis presents major opportunities locally to improve quality of life, health, wellbeing and the economy.
Wirral Council is committing to acting to:
- achieve ‘net zero’ carbon emissions associated with our activities by 2030
- promote wider action to help reach ‘net zero’ emissions for Wirral as a whole no later than 2041
- identify risks and prioritise nature-based solutions to build resilience to climate change
- become a ‘Carbon Literate’ organisation
- promote sustainable regeneration and green investment, with a brownfield first development strategy in the Local Plan
- reduce unnecessary travel through planning and the use of information technology
- facilitate modal shift from fossil fuelled vehicle use to active travel, public transport and ultra-low carbon vehicles, for example, electric vehicles)
- manage our use of energy, water, and resources as efficiently as possible
- promote sustainable resource use more widely, to encourage the transition to a less wasteful ‘circular economy’
- make use of cleaner renewable energy to meet our energy needs
- promote a wider shift to non-fossil fuel clean energy sources
- manage at least 30% of land in Wirral for the benefit of wildlife by 2030 (in line with government commitments)
- ensure a 20% ‘net gain’ in biodiversity across all council land
- increase tree planting to double Wirral’s tree canopy cover
- increase the number of parks and open spaces achieving green flag status
Tackling climate change
Tackling climate change demands that we eliminate climate-related pollution and adapt to the unavoidable changes from pollution already in the atmosphere.
We aim to lead by example and encourage wider action. To this end, the council:
- operates a carbon budget and publishes annual greenhouse gas emission reports
- supports Cool 2 – The climate change strategy for Wirral
- convenes the Cool Wirral Partnership
- promotes action via The Cool Wirral campaign
- has prepared a Council climate emergency action plan
View Wirral's Environment and Climate Emergency Policy Statement
Key achievements since climate emergency was declared