Climate Change
Tackling climate change is essential. We all have our own individual role to play, as does the council. Institutionally, we will work to make Flintshire Council genuinely net zero no later than 2035. While we have previously supported a 2030 deadline, the slow progress of the Labour administration, and the continued lack of a commitment and plan from the administration to reach net zero by then, mean that this earlier date seems certain to be missed. This failure will cost the residents of Flintshire dearly in the future.
We will also support local residents and businesses to reduce their own emissions. It is clear that if we are to keep our global temperature within a range that keeps Flintshire a liveable place, we will all need to make sacrifices. However, Flintshire People’s Voice will not allow the costs of this transition to be pushed on to ordinary people while bigshot politicians and their rich donors fly about on private jets, with carbon footprints that dwarf that of local residents. The hypocrisy of the big parties on this issue has been shocking – a case of ‘do as I say, not as I do’. Climate action cannot happen without climate justice.
Under FPV leadership, Flintshire council will develop local green energy, including by supporting homeowners to install solar panels on homes in the county, expanding the council’s own green energy generation, for example by placing solar panels above council-owned car parks, and will use revenue generated from this to cover costs of the climate transition. We will seek to use the council’s purchasing power to benefit local residents looking to improve the energy efficiency of their home, supporting residents to club together to offer companies the chance to bid for a contract to upgrade all their homes, making the prices more competitive.
We will rewild council-owned land where appropriate, restoring green canopy and peatlands, and storing carbon. We will not introduce a policy of planting trees on all vacant council land, but will consider whether other methods of stewardship may be more effective, in line with our environment policies.
FPV believes that commercial carbon offsetting is a scam. We will not buy any carbon credits and use them to claim we are net zero. If we fail to reach our targets, we will own up to that rather than spend public money on what is effectively a PR stunt.