Southampton City Council - Officially Declare a Climate Emergency

We are asking Southampton City Council to join dozens of other local authorities across the country including cities as diverse as Bristol, Manchester and Leicester to declare a 'Climate Emergency'. By doing this, and crucially backing it up with action, it sends a message to Southampton's citizens, the country and the world, that our councillors acknowledge the scale of the threat of climate change and are going to do everything in their powers to mitigate against it.

On 15 February 2019, at the YouthStrike4Climate in Central Southampton, Councillor Hammond told the children of our city, 'No ifs, no buts, we face a climate emergency'.

Recently, council members told members of local environmental groups that detailing the specifics of climate change may be too scary to put into public language. We don't feel this is good enough and ask that they tell the truth.

The time has come to put the importance of the environment as our home, and the need for its protection for our survival, before anything else. Not doing so, fails the population of our city.

The council have set out a blueprint for a green charter for the city which commits to carbon neutrality by 2030. We applaud this commitment but the scope of carbon emissions to be reduced needs further definition as per our second point and we suggest 2025 would be better to aim for as 2030 is the ultimate deadline to prevent a global temperature rise of more than 1.5°C. The IPCC’s recent Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5°C, describes the enormous harm that a 2°C rise is likely to cause compared to a 1.5°C rise, and told us that limiting Global Warming to 1.5°C may still be possible with ambitious action from national and sub-national authorities, civil society, the private sector, indigenous peoples and local communities.

If you would like to live in a greener, healthier and more sustainable city - and if you want Councillors to make decisions that support our health, protect our livelihoods, homes and children's future - then please sign this petition.

If you would like peace of mind knowing that the next generation - and all generations to come - have a bright and safe future without the threat of climate change then please sign this petition.

We can still avoid the climate catastrophe if those at the top, our City Council, change how they make decisions for our city.

Supportive Resources:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1_QmTg-SXD8dc9PfaxEWIe-PiJgnOZLK1p6UMBh8X0AA/edit?usp=sharing