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    19

    May 2023

    Last Updated: 19/05/2023
    Environment
    Environment

    Harrogate councillor appointed county’s climate champion

    by Thomas Barrett Local Democracy Reporter

    | 19 May, 2023
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    Conservative councillor Paul Haslam was appointed as the North Yorkshire climate champion at a meeting yesterday.

    His role will involve encouraging positive action over the climate crisis in North Yorkshire in the same week that an IPCC report said only drastic action can prevent “irrevocable damage to world.”

    Cllr Haslam, who represents Bilton and Nidd Gorge on North Yorkshire Council, has been a proponent of climate change policies and the need to protect the environment since becoming a councillor on the now-abolished Harrogate Borough Council in 2014. He was nominated for the climate champion role alongside Green Party member for Ouseburn, Arnold Warneken.

    Councillors then made pitches about why they are best-suited before members voted again.

    Cllr Warneken said:

    “My adult life I’ve been campaigning for the climate.
    "In my workplace, in my private life. I’ve committed my ambitions to see a better place for all of us to live. I don’t really care who saves the planet, as long as they get on with it.
    "My credentials are I won’t politicise this, I will do it purely from what I think is the council’s best approach to ensure their commitment to climate change is secured. If you slice me in half, you’ll see climate change like a stick of rock.”


    Cllr Haslam said:

    "The fight to mitigate climate change is vital. It’s the mission of this generation.
    "I’m persistent, some might say relentless. I will use this role to engage and educate the discussion around climate change and enable and empower people to fight this change.
    "I believe I have the anger and courage, curiosity, and expertise, to not only champion but embed climate change in this council. For this community, this country and in a small way, the world.”


    Councillors initially took a vote on the two councillors sharing the position, but it was narrowly defeated after many Conservative members voted against it.

    When voting for who should take up the single role, councillors voted for Cllr Haslam by 46 to 38, with 3 abstentions.

     

    Cllr Paul Haslam





    Read more:






    What is the council doing to tackle climate change?


    Nearly all council services emit carbon emissions, from street lighting to getting rid of waste, heating schools and care homes. The council is the largest employer in North Yorkshire and is a significant landowner, which means it has the power to affect change.

    In January the council published a draft climate change strategy that includes ambitions such as becoming carbon neutral by 2030, increasing walking and cycling as well as planting 37,000 hectares of new woodland by 2038.

    But it has been criticised for its response to the climate crisis after it finally declared a climate emergency last year, three years later than other nearby councils in Harrogate, York and Darlington.