This week’s full Council Meeting saw the adoption of the “Birmingham Declaration on Climate Change” following a motion proposed by the Council’s Lib Dem Group. The motion was added to and supported by both the Tory and Labour Groups.

Proposed by Lib Dem Group Leader Cllr Paul Tilsley and seconded by Lib Dem cabinet member, Cllr Ayoub Khan, the Declaration demonstrates Birmingham’s leadership in setting out plans to tackle climate change and prepare our economy for a future of much scarcer raw materials, such as oil.

The Declaration will mean the country’s biggest local authority will use its purchasing power to stimulate the City’s green economy, creating new jobs whilst reducing energy bills for residents.

The Declaration commits the Council, by 2015, to:

• Cut the City’s energy consumption by 25%,
• Buy 50% of the City’s electricity from renewable sources, 
• Ensure all vehicles bought by the Council are powered by electricity or LPG,
• Develop a network of electric car charging points, with at least 500 electric cars running in the City,
• Install retrofit insulation in 10% of City homes,
• Connect 10% of City homes to District Heating Schemes,
• Create a further 10 low carbon communities based on the successful Summerfield model.

I very much welcome this as a bold but achieveable plan for the next five years. It will take us a significant step along the way to becoming a low carbon, energy secure City, which is playing its part in tackling climate change.