Leeds is the latest Council to vote to Get Serious

Leeds City Council became the latest council in England to pass a motion to Get Serious About CO2.

In the motion that was passed in January 2010, the Council resolved to:

• Reduce emissions in the Leeds area towards a goal of at least 40% by 2020.
• Produce an action plan to achieve these reductions.
• Support energy efficiency and micro-renewables in homes and commercial buildings, and CHP in district schemes.
• Publish carbon budgets for both the council's operations and the wider city.
• Report annually on progress towards the delivery of the 40% reduction target.

This is massive progress for Leeds - just six months ago the council had no short- or medium-term climate change targets, and hadn't even signed up to National Indicator 186.

And it all came about as a result of a well-organised effort from the local group.

To kick things off, a showing of the film The Age of Stupid to local councillors and business leaders put the campaign on the map. A panel of speakers then outlined what Leeds could and should be doing to tackle emissions.

The group formed alliances with other local groups, including Schumacher North, Trade Injustice and Debt Action Leeds and Stop Climate Chaos Leeds.

This resulted in a concerted lobbying effort of councillors across the city in the run-up to the meeting where the motion was discussed.

All the group's contacts and allies lobbied their local councillors to raise awareness of the campaign.

This helped them build good relations with councillors from across the political spectrum to ensure a strong motion was passed. And it also meant that councillors knew that support for the campaign came from across the community.

This is democracy in action

Council Leader Richard Brett

Press coverage

During the week of the motion being debated by the council, the group handed all the signed postcards and petitions to the leader of the council. Great press coverage helped put the pressure on councillors before the crucial vote.

Cross-party support

The group had a good working relationship with a Labour councillor who initially tabled the motion.

But with Labour a minority party in the council, Conservative and Liberal Democrat support was vital. A landslide vote of 68 in favour to 12 against was testament to the success of this approach.

We had already put through ambitious targets to reduce emissions for the council's own estate, but all your lobbying as part of the Get Serious About CO2 campaign gave us the public support and momentum to extend these to the rest of the city much more quickly than we otherwise would have been able to.

Councillor James Monaghan

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Main image © Leeds Friends of the Earth