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A commitment to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 could be ditched by East Sussex County Council’s (ESCC) new leaders.
A meeting of the council’s cabinet agreed to invite the authority’s scrutiny committees to consider the Reform UK administration’s new draft climate strategy.
Reform UK has a minority leadership of the council following last May’s local government elections. The net-zero target was agreed by the previous Conservative leaders.
The new policy “resets” existing climate commitments and “prioritises severe weather preparedness” over cutting emissions. Reform says the policy u-turn is not a denial of climate change but “one of priority, proportionality and delivery”.
The move would be contrary to the Climate Change Act 2008 which was amended in 2019 to commit the UK to a 100% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 compared to 1990 levels.
ESCC leader Andy Woolley said a change of priority was needed as the cost pressures of statutory services had “intensified”, but the Green Party called it a “dereliction of duty”.
Woolley told the cabinet meeting he “could have taken this straight to council for a vote in a few weeks’ time” but instead wanted to hear the views of the council’s scrutiny committees.
Officers wrote that the proposed strategy would represent “a substantive change” of the council’s position if adopted, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.
According to a report for councillors, external, the new approach was “based on statutory compliance, measurable energy efficiency, affordable emissions reduction and climate resilience”.
The council would only continue with emissions reductions “where affordable, cost-effective, externally funded, legally required or operationally justified” under the proposed policy.
Kathryn Field, leader of the council’s Liberal Democrats, said the authority should “be working incredibly hard to reduce” carbon emissions, which would in turn lead to resilience.
Green Party councillor Christina Coleman said: “The future is not looking good, so to renounce the idea of this not being an emergency and to pretend it is not happening is a dereliction of duty.”
The council adopted the net-zero target in 2019, when councillors voted in favour of a motion declaring a climate emergency.
Conservative group leader Paul Redstone said on Tuesday that net-zero was an idea he would “support if it was possible” but that it “isn’t affordable”.
The council’s report stated that the proposed change was “not a denial of climate change or a conclusion that global emissions reduction is unnecessary”, and instead was “one of priority, proportionality and delivery”.