A ‘climate change emergency’ could be redeclared on the Isle of Wight after extreme heat, torrential rain and landslides.
Some 7 years after County Hall sounded the alarm over rising greenhouse gas emissions, Liberal Democrat councillor Michael Lilley is bringing the issue back onto the agenda with a full council motion, saying action is long overdue.
He said the weather experienced by Islanders since 2019 has had a ‘dramatic and traumatic’ impact on many due to flooding, a ‘huge increase’ in sewage discharges triggered by torrential rain, landslips causing a loss of homes and heatwaves putting lives at risk.
Cllr Lilley said:
“The evidence that human created climate change is the cause of increasing extreme weather is growing”.
Cllr Lilley’s motion proposes County Hall reconfirm the 2019 declaration, update all climate change and environmental strategies and implement climate change adaptions as outlined in the latest report by the national Climate Change Committee (CCC).
The CCC report’s key areas for government action include protecting people from heat, managing flood risk, avoiding water shortages and keeping farming viable.
Cllr Lilley said:
“I felt it was important to bring the debate back into the council chamber and prioritise the Island strategies needed to make sure we adapt and make the changes needed to protect the well-being of residents, so we are prepared when we are hit annually by rising temperatures and extreme weather.”
He does not at this stage have a sense of how much support there is for the motion but said in 2019 he was able to build a majority of cross-party support despite opposition ‘mainly by the Conservative administration’.
He added:
“We agreed a free vote and we were successful,” the councillor said. “I hope the same can be achieved on Wednesday. The scientific evidence is clear that climate change is the cause of our increasing extreme weather.”
Full council will meet at County Hall at 18:00 tonight (Wednesday).
Its about time these councilors started looking at addressing the budget deficit instead of things that the IWCC cannot influence. Get your priorities right, reduce the deficit, spend within your income, work for islanders not yourself!
Whilst this council has serious budget problems… We have a Climate emergency which any sane person can see with their old eyes. 1976 was a one in 50 year event… 22,23,25 and 26 being record years for both rain and sun? that is a clear trend.
The consequenses will cost the council more in the long run.
The council agreeing an emergency exists will help later debates around: –
Building new resevoirs to save some of the winter rain to allow agriculture and tourism to continue in the hot summer months
Overcome NIMBY fears around water recycling and desalination efforts (Water is the ultimate recycled product – People can object, but then they need to dramatically halt their water consumption
Support measures to reduce CO2 levels.
The IW council really has very little ‘fat’ remaining to trim from it’s budgets. You may not like the salaries some of the staff earn, but the problem with dropping wages significantly below market rates, is that you will not be able to attract competant talent – if you are lucky and manage to catch a superstar willing to take the wages – they won’t be in role long before moving on for significantly more money.
It is Adult Social Care and Childrens Services which are disproportionately taking up the Council budget anyway – neither areas we can (legally or morally) cut money from. Unless we ban pensioners and disabled adults from moving onto the Island…..
This fool Lilley, who was once a Green Party Member, is utterly deluded.
He said the weather experienced by Islanders since 2019 has had a ‘dramatic and traumatic’ impact on many.
He obviously thinks, like many of these posturing fools, that he or the Council are able to change that weather.
If that were the case, can we have sunshine from May until October please?
With intermittent rainfall on Sundays?
And just a sprinkling of snow on December 25th?
Crawl back under your goatskin rug in your cave Michael and let the adults deal with the “extreme” weather as best they can.
You are obviously confused, or lacking the mental capacity to understand the concept.….
It’s not about changing, or controlling the weather..( TBH Net Zero, is just not going to happen!..
too many greedy people / companies, wanting to keep taking the options that makes the most profit.., and people like you who are either incapable of understanding, or just can’t be arsed, to let that happen)
This is about the council making decisions on things like planning and infrastructure, while taking into account that in the future; wetter winters (more extreme rain, leading to potential flooding) and hotter, drier, summers (leading to higher temperatures, and more frequent drought conditions), are likely to become the norm.
Things like improving drainage, when creating or updating urban infrastructure, or automatic granting of planning permission for reservoirs & other water storage facilities.
Whether the island achieves nut zero or not is utterly irrelevant globally. Lilley should concentrate on what he can influence locally, not get hysterical about things over which he has no control whatsoever. He’s a waste of expenses.
another one who seems incapable of understanding…
This IS about concentrating on what can be influenced locally…
by the council making decisions, about local issues, based on the expectation that, what used to be considered to be, extreme weather, in terms of too much , or not enough rainfall, and higher temperatures, will likely become the norm, in the future.
I understand all too well, thanks. This tiny, rural island is responsible for about 0.15% at most of the country’s carbon emissions, and Britain is responsible for around 0.8% of global emissions. That means the island contributes about 0.000012% to global carbon emissions, even if one accepts, and not everybody does, that a harmless trace gas in the atmosphere – around 432 parts per million – is a significant factor in climate change. In other words what the IoW does or does not do is irrelevant in terms of global climate change, even if we did beggar ourselves to achieve nut zero. Climate change is a real thing alright, but it’s driven by nature, not man. I am old enough to remember scientists warning in the early 70s that by 2000 we would be entering a new Ice Age, so forgive those of us who weren’t born yesterday when we take modern, fashionable climate change hysteria with a very large pinch of salt.
For goodness sakes why? What will that achieve?
Its not greenhouse gasses causing the problem, its the continued urbanisation of this and surrounding countries that is the cause.
Just plot rise in temperature against increased urban development over time and it clearly shows that creating concrete jungles heats the environment.
LoL
The greenhouse gases our hedonistic lifestyles, constant wants which prompts manufacturers to answer the call and produce, produce, produce emit into the atmosphere as Co2 (the energy we demand), methane (from the amount of meat we demand), nitrous oxide from the fertilisation of the crops we demand (also runs off and contaminates water supplies) and of course the original culprit, hydrofluorocarbons for (ironically) keeping us and our mega food intake cool as the weather heats up…and up…and up.
It creates a nice cosy blanket wayyyy up in the atmosphere. The sun, being close to it, can permeate through. The heat it produces as it hits the ground though, cannot rise up and escape. And lo, global temperature rises. A rise in global temperatures alters weather patterns by increasing atmospheric moisture and disrupting global wind and ocean currents. Warmer air holds more water vapor—roughly 7% more for every 1degree C increase. This extra moisture supercharges storms, leading to heavier rainfall and flooding, while simultaneously drying out soils in other regions, worsening droughts and heatwaves. Little by little, year on year we will go through parching of the land, soil etc, followed by torrential rains. Anyone who has ever tried to water very dry soil will know it becomes incapable of holding onto moisture…water just runs off it fast. And floods houses and businesses. Insurances go up. Prices go up. Housing need goes up. The price of crops go up. Then there’s the excess deaths from heat and lack of cool oxygen in the air, hospitalisations from breathing difficulties such as asthma, skin cancers. Oh well. Not your problem, eh? Not today anyway.
The water that DOES eventually permeate through washes through the cracks in places like…Ventnor, St Lawrence Bonchurch, more recently Shanklin and Sandown. I’m waiting for Culver. Roads develop large holes. Island Roads rub their hands and ask for more money. Well, that wasn’t in the contract, was it?
Some say ‘nah, climate change, concentrate on reducing my council tax bill…where’s yer priorities?’ or ‘oh well, can’t change the weather, idiot’, or my favourite ‘don’t get hysterical, you waste of (miniscule) expenses’
So, one bloke, Lilley, is asking for a full council motion to at least talk about how we can mitigate this new normal, given that most people are not going to forgo their mahoosive meaty food intakes, cheap bread and cereals or stop upping the thermostat in the winter.
Build more reservoirs, divert rivers, stop soil erosion etc etc. Better NHS resources for the getting sicker year on year statistics. Limit or find alternatives for fertilisers.
There’s plenty we DO have control over. Doing nothing will cost far more.
Although as Reform policy is climate change denial in total…I can’t wait for the hoo-ha. It actually PAYS them to have the public in hock. They are betting heavily on it.
During lockdowns the earth started to repair, proving that it is indeed man-made and what is done can also be undone…if we want to survive.
First step is paying attention and getting your heads out of the silty sand (or your ass).
No wonder the temperature is getting hotter with all these lefty LD Greens spouting off hot air.
I am surprised Michael is not calling for a fart tax.
All those emissions damaging the climate.
Great to see Lilley is highlighting up the climate emergency, and that we need to respond to it.
Islanders are vulnerable to rising seas, and we are easily cut off from the mainland supply chains.
Preparing for the impacts is essential.
Buckle up. Climate change is coming and it hits hard.
When the vote comes we get to see which councillors get it (and can be depended on) and which don’t (and can’t).