Reform UK climate debate delayed over extreme heat

A Reform UK councillor's bid to scrap his authority's climate emergency declaration has been delayed because the chamber was too hot to debate it.

Austen Moore is calling for the Borough Council of King's Lynn and West Norfolk to end the climate emergency it declared in 2021 and to instead focus on "practical environment action".

The motion was due to be debated at a full council meeting at King's Lynn Town Hall on Thursday.

However, due to the Met Office issuing an amber extreme heat warning and the chamber having no air conditioning, it was deemed unfit.

The news of the postponement was shared on Facebook and has been rearranged to Thursday.

It said: "This decision has been made in the interests of the comfort, wellbeing and safety of councillors, staff and members of the public."

According to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, independent deputy leader Simon Ring said the weather had "submitted its own amendment to the motion".

"Postponing a climate debate because of a red heat warning is undeniably ironic," he said.

"It may be amusing, but it also reminds us that practical measures, like improving the energy efficiency of homes and making our communities more resilient, deliver benefits that people can feel today."

Moore argues the council should replace its declaration with a practical environmental and resilience strategy focused on flood defence, water management and protecting farmland.

"I've proposed a motion to replace the current emergency that focuses on CO2 with a resilience strategy so we can make ourselves more resilient to the effects of climate change," he said.

"You don't spend all your money trying to stop a hurricane, tornado or earthquake – you create infrastructure that is resilient to as much of it as possible."

Since the climate emergency was declared five years ago when the council was controlled by the Conservatives, money was set aside for decarbonisation, several council buildings were retrofitted for energy efficiency and the authority brought forward its net zero target from 2050 to 2035.

Net zero refers to an equal balance between the amount of gases or carbon being produced and the amount we are able to remove from the atmosphere by changing the way we do things, like driving electric rather than fossil-fuel powered vehicles.

Scientists have little doubt that human-caused climate change - largely the result of the burning of coal, oil and gas - has supercharged the heat.

The Earth's 11 warmest years on record have all happened since 2015, according to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).

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