XR Croydon protestors on the steps of the Town Hall this morning
Time is running out to tackle the climate emergency.
That was the message of a demonstration on the Town Hall steps this morning by environmental activists Croydon Extinction Rebellion, who were protesting against the inaction of Croydon Council and its Climate Change Commission.
Dozens of pairs of children’s shoes were laid out across the Town Hall steps, signifying the young lives being damaged, put under threat or even lost because of the council’s failure to act on key promises around climate change.
The council promised ‘deeds not words’, and has since done nothing
Today marks the one-year anniversary of the first meeting of the Croydon Climate Change Commission, which was established nine months after the Labour-run council did one of its usual pieces of grandstanding by “declaring” a climate and ecological emergency. The council leader at the time, Tony Newman (remember him?), promised, “Deeds not words.”
“Last year, a Citizen’s Assembly gave the council a clear mandate for those promised deeds, but very little discernible progress has been made, and finances which could have been used for a green recovery have been squandered on poor investments and questionable payoffs,” an XR Croydon spokesperson said.
To emphasise that time is running out, XR Croydon referred to a UN report which stated, “We have 12 years to limit a climate change catastrophe.” That was said in 2018.
XR Croydon said, “Even with the finance issues, the council could have begun to take actions that would have cost nothing, or even saved money.
“While understanding that it has been a tough year for all, XR Croydon believes that the council needs a timely reminder that this is an emergency and that the window of opportunity to act is shrinking with every month that goes by.”
Read more: Calls for Beddington incinerator to be shut down over CO2
Read more: Councillors ‘gagged’ from questioning incinerator operators
- Inside Croydon is a member of the Independent Community News Network
- Inside Croydon works together with the Bureau of Investigative Journalism and BBC London News
- ROTTEN BOROUGH AWARDS: Croydon was named the country’s rottenest borough in 2020 in the annual round-up of civic cock-ups in Private Eye magazine – the fourth successive year that Inside Croydon has been the source for such award-winning nominations
- Content on this site is also licensed via Ping! News. To access content for copying in full or in part, please visit https://pingnews.uk/
