Proposed by Councillor Wolff, seconded by Councillor Simmons

Green member motion

On 28th January 2019, the Council passed an amended motion declaring a Climate Emergency.

Since then, the County Council has followed suit, as have many Council’s nationwide, as part of the national movement – led by Extinction Rebellion, YouthStrike4Climate and others - to prioritise action on tackling the climate crisis.

The majority of Council’s, including Oxfordshire, have gone further than Oxford City Council by pledging to make their own operations, and their wider administrative area, carbon neutral by a specified date and putting in place a process to report back on progress.

This Council therefore wishes to align with the target set by Oxfordshire County Council, building on its previous unanimous declaration, and:

1.           Pledge to make Oxford City Council carbon neutral by 2030

2.           Continue to work with partners across the city to deliver this new goal across all sectors

3.           Call on Westminster to provide the powers and resources to make the 2030 target achievable

4.           Ensure, as far as possible, that this target is reflected in the Oxfordshire Plan 2050 and associated plans strategies including Oxford’s own Local Plan

5.           Do what it can to support those groups and organisations – such as YouthStrike4Climate – who are seeking to galvanise public action around climate change

6.           Report to Council within six months with the actions the Council will take to address this emergency.

7.           Asks Scrutiny to consider setting up a review group to help develop, scrutinise and support plans to deliver against this 2030 target.

Councillor Wolff, seconded by Councillor Simmons, proposed the submitted motion as set out in the agenda and briefing note.

Two amendments were set out in the briefing note. Councillor Wolff accepted the amendment from Councillor Harris, but not the amendment from Councillor Hayes.

Councilor Hayes proposed and Councillor Brown seconded his amendment.

After debate and on being put to the vote the amendment was declared carried.

Council then debated the amended motion, and on being put to the vote this was declared carried.

Council resolved to adopt the following motion, as amended:

On 28th January 2019, the Council unanimously passed an amended motion declaring a Climate Emergency. Since then, the County Council has followed suit to unanimously acknowledge the climate emergency facing the world.

The majority of Councils, including Oxfordshire, have pledged to make their own operations carbon neutral by a specified date and put in place a process to report back on progress.

This Council has gone further, by committing to involve a Citizens Assembly to make recommendations on the key decisions around both target deadlines to reach zero carbon and the types of costed measures required to meet those targets. We await the evidence-based recommendations of the Citizens Assembly in September 2019 in order to make decisions and set deadlines that reflect the support of a representation of the city.

Therefore, we will:

1.            Continue to call on the Government to provide the powers and resources to fully decarbonise Oxford City Council in the shortest timeframe working towards the vision of zero carbon by 2030 at the latest.

2.            Continue to work with partners across the city to deliver this new goal across all sectors and make further reductions in carbon emissions as the City Council is responsible for just 1% of Oxford’s carbon emissions.

3.            Ensure, as far as possible, that any new targets are reflected in the Oxfordshire Plan 2050 and associated plans and strategies.

4.            Report to Council within two months of the finalisation of the Citizens Assembly report with the actions the Council will take to address this emergency.

5.            After the Citizens Assembly has reported, encourage Scrutiny, as master of its own house, to consider setting up a review group to scrutinise and support plans to deliver against targets.

6.            Respect the process agreed to unanimously by all councillors on 28 January 2019 to approve a Citizens Assembly to ‘establish the facts and make recommendations’ for dealing with cli-mate change and discourage the submission of further motions to Full Council which may pre-empt the findings of the Citizens Assembly.