A senior Knowsley council officer said a “revolution is coming and we need to get our heads around it” at a meeting of the borough’s climate emergency committee tonight.
The remarks, by executive director for communities and neighbourhoods, Andrew Donaldson, were made as councillors were given an update into the council ’s efforts to tackle carbon emissions in Knowsley.
While the council have a plan to get to net zero by 2040 and have been taking some steps towards that, Mr Donaldson said the scale of change required a “revolution” impacting every aspect of life for residents and businesses in the borough and beyond.
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Mr Donaldson said: "We shouldn’t underestimate the size of the challenge here facing the world about fundamentally needing to change how we live our lives.”
Referring to Knowsley Council’s emissions, which only make up 2% of the borough total Mr Donaldson said: “We can deal with the 2% for us as a council with investment, time, change, but the fundamental challenge of how the people of Knowsley live and the businesses operate – it’s a fundamental challenge.
“That revolution is coming isn’t it and we need to get our heads around that.”
He added: “We’re being fairly timid at the moment” but said cultural change was required in order to accelerate the pace of change.
Since Knowsley declared a climate emergency in January 2020, one of the last borough’s in wider Merseyside to do so, its climate emergency team have been working to generate an action plan and begin to tackle the borough’s emissions.
With an initial focus on the council’s own emissions, an action plan was developed and approved in November 2020.
At the borough’s climate emergency scrutiny committee, held at Huyton mincipal building tonight, July 27, climate officer Megan Bennett spoke of some of the steps taken so far.
Ms Bennett said these have included de-carbonising five key council buildings, generating £3..4 million of government funding to do so. Progress has also been made into the borough’s heat de-carbonisation plan and making street lighting more energy efficient.
According to Mrs Bennett, while this makes up around 50% of the council’s pathway to net zero by 2040, there are still nearly 50% of areas not yet progressed, including around gas and electricity usage, the borough’s vehicle fleet and staff travel.
A feasibility study is currently being carried out at Knowsley Council’s depot on Stretton Way looking at ways of de-carbonising the borough’s fleet, although officers say there are key challenges to the site and technological issues involved.
Speaking about the wider picture of emissions across the borough, head of environmental sustainability, Caroline Holmes, said the largest sources are transport, domestic and industry settings, some of the most “challenging” areas for the council to tackle.
Ms Holmes said there were many questions to address as to how to encourage residents and businesses to reduce their carbon emissions. However, she added: “We don’t have the answers but we know where the challenges are and have started to make those connections with organisations” through the borough’s Better Together Net Zero forum.
Mr Donaldson said: “Our focus in the last couple of years has been to get our own house in order, the idea of what we can do as a council.
“This other stuff is much harder, it’s easier to get overwhelmed.”
He added: “It touches every aspect of how we live, how our transport systems work, how we live our lives.
“There’s a fundamental revolution that has to take place, not just across Knowsley or the UK but the whole world.”
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