Motion - Invest in the Future / Divest from Fossil Fuels

This is the first of two motions i submitted to the recent Full Council. Unfortunately, I was a bit unwell and left the meeting early, so the formal proposal was made by a Labour comrade.

 

 

Invest in the Future / Divest from Fossil Fuels

1. This Council notes:

• That our council pension fund is heavily invested into fossil fuels, according to data available on https://gofossilfree.org/uk/fuellingthefire/
• That the Paris 2015 Agreement commits our government to keep the global temperature increase within 2 degrees and aim for 1.5 degrees. Carbon budgets produced by the IPCC and UN show that avoiding 2 degrees of warming relies on not burning 60-80% of discovered fossil fuels. 
• Repeated warnings by Bank of England Governor Mark Carney that “the vast majority of [fossil fuel] reserves are unburnable”.
• The resulting threat to pensions that are over-exposed to fossil fuels, and therefore to local pension-holders and council taxpayers.
• The shortage of investment into social housing, transport, and renewables.
• The importance of a just transition for workers in sectors and communities dependent on fossil fuels, and of decent and unionised low-carbon jobs.
• That several UK local government pension funds have committed to divesting, joining $6 trillion in fossil fuel divestment commitments worldwide.
• That UNISON (largest union representing local government workers) and the TUC campaign for divestment in line with obligations to pension-holders.

2. This Council resolves:

• To call on the council pensions committee to commit to divest from fossil fuels over the next 5 years.
• To call upon the council pensions committee to seek to reinvest into the just transition, where possible and in line with obligations to pension holders.

Death of the urban wood dream?

For many years now I have been thinking on the subject of urban woods. I cannot put a date as to when this began, but it is at least seven years. I wrote Wanted: more trees, less tarmac in March 2011.

My initial attempts to get some traction with this locally were met with some derision. Whilst I did not receive a cachinnatious response there were many who questioned my sanity. Nonetheless I persisted.

Eventually my persuasion paid off as my wish for an urban wood made it into the local Labour manifesto. It also appeared, to these eyes anyway, that I was getting a more receptive ear in council meetings. I was certainly raising the subject whenever I could, and my thoughts on this subject were becoming well known.

Eventually my idea for a portable solution seemed to have been put into practise along the London Road.

Fast-forward to the present, and imagine my disappointment when I found out that an urban wood is no longer local Labour Party policy – it has just been dropped from the local manifesto.

For many of us in the broad Labour movement the environment is an important issue.

Being dropped is not an end as far as I am concerned. I shall still campaign for an urban wood in the Borough of Southend-on-Sea.

On the call for a progressive alliance

On the call for a progressive alliance

Julian Ware-Lane, Labour’s candidate for Southend West, supports environmental policy, but will not support the call for a “progressive alliance,” or an electoral pact with the Green Party.

“I have a long-standing commitment to the environment,” Mr. Ware-Lane explains, “and I fully support the pledge made by the Labour Party to ensure a fair transition to a low-carbon economy, and drive the expansion of the green industries and jobs of the future.”

The Labour manifesto has yet to be published, but Mr. Ware-Lane is confident that environmental policy will feature prominently in Labour’s campaign. “We cannot leave the issues around climate change, carbon dioxide emissions, and rising sea levels, to the next generation. It will be too late. We need action now,” said Julian.

There have been calls for cooperation between centre-left parties as the way to stop the Tories from wrecking our country for generations to come.  As Julian points out, “in Southend West, the Party that got closest to the Tories at the last election was the Labour Party. If you want to see the environment protected then the only way to achieve this is to vote Labour.”

This comes in the wake of Green Party candidates in Oxford West and Abingdon, stepping down to give the Lib-Dems a clear run in seats where they came second in 2015.

"Only Labour can beat the Tories in Southend West", added Julian.