We have heard a lot about climate change, but there are many “co-benefits” to your community from taking climate action, such as:
- More locally grown fruit and vegetables improves the quality of the food that benefits our health, as well as reducing food cost and reducing pollution due to food imports from overseas.
- Creating new allotments can help with all of this, one of the few statutory responsibilities for English town and parish councils.
- Further community action such as setting up repair cafes and other sharing and recycling can also help save money, rather than everyone always buying new goods.
- Many people are isolated in their own homes for a number of reasons, with no private transport to help them get about. A locally-run minibus scheme can help improve people’s lives while also keeping down the use of private cars.
You can find out more about such co-benefits here.
This is not to downgrade the need to respond to the increase of so-called “greenhouse gases” in the atmosphere which are preventing heat from escaping into space, and the subsequent global warming that is causing increasing changes in weather patterns. You may already have felt the need to deal with local flooding, for example.
Once you decide as a council to get involved in climate action, there is a lot of advice available.
Button link to the next “Declaring” page