Liverpool City Council has signed up to a commitment on tackling climate change.
The Local Government Association’s Climate Local, aims “to drive, inspire and support council action on a changing climate.”
It supports efforts to reduce carbon emissions and to improve resilience to the effects of changing climate and extreme weather.
Councillor Tim Moore, cabinet member for transport and climate change, said: “By signing this document we are demonstrating our commitment to take practical action on tackling climate change. We are committed to improve our energy use and encourage the creation of green industry jobs in the city and city region. We want to work with residents and businesses to cut their energy bills and protect the environment.”
The commitment reads as follows:
“We recognise that our council has an important role to help our residents and businesses to capture the opportunities and benefits of action on climate change. These include saving money on energy bills, generating income from renewable energy, attracting new jobs and investment in ‘green’ industries, supporting new sources of energy, managing local flood-risk and water scarcity and protecting our natural environment.
“We will progressively address the risks and pursue the opportunities presented by a changing climate, in line with local priorities, through our role as:
• Community leader – helping local people and businesses to be smarter about their energy use and to prepare for climate impacts;
• Service provider – delivering services that are resource efficient, less carbon intensive, resilient and that protect those who are most vulnerable to climate impacts;
• Estate manager – ensuring that our own buildings and operations are resource efficient, use clean energy, and are well prepared for the impacts of a changing climate.
“In signing this commitment, we will:
• Set locally-owned and determined commitments and actions to reduce carbon emissions and to manage climate impacts. These will be specific, measurable and challenging;
• Publish our commitments, actions and progress, enabling local communities to hold us to account;
• Share the learning from our experiences and achievements with other councils; and
• Regularly refresh our commitments and actions to ensure they are current and continue to reflect local priorities.”
