Petition to Keep Pembrokeshire on Track on Climate

The West Wales Climate Coalition says that, after learning that Pembrokeshire County Council may renege on its commitment to tackle climate change, it felt this could not go unchallenged. It has organised a petition to raise awareness of this possible change and to enable others to have their voices heard.

One of the group, Sian Vaughan, a retired headteacher who lives in Fishguard said: “It’s incredible that Pembrokeshire Council should be putting their heads in the sand over this. They’re setting up a group to review and possibly drop their 2019 Declaration of a Climate Emergency, and maybe even dumping their plan to deliver net zero carbon emissions in council operations by 2030. Climate change is a massive threat to every one of us. We can see the effects around us, we’re getting hotter summers, periods of drought and then sudden heavier rainfall, stronger storms and more flooding. What kind of a world are we leaving to our children?

“Installing solar panels to help with the costs of heating swimming pools and schools seems very sensible in any case. Oil and gas prices spiked not so long ago and could easily do so again. Insulating us from these price shocks by investing in renewables, energy efficiency and electrification is wise investment. Cutting this investment would be a short-sighted false economy, likely to come back to haunt those setting the budget in the near future – when I don’t suppose there will be any more government funding than there is now to offset the price rises. If that happens, I will be furious with councillors for their failure to protect our services.”

Mike Davies, a scientist from Mathry, added, “The top scientists of the world are telling us again and again that climate change is happening at a faster and faster rate. They warn us that this is probably the greatest threat we’ve ever faced. The evidence can’t be denied. It all shows that man-made changes, especially the emission of CO2 and other greenhouse gasses from burning of fossil fuels, are changing our climate and threatening us. Despite all this, some councillors feel that they know better, and that there isn’t an emergency, although they have no background in climate science.”

Pembrokeshire county councillor Joshua Beynon also feels strongly that those on the council who want to throw out the net zero plan (to deliver net zero council operations by 2030) are likely to harm the economic future of the area.

In an interview on Pure West Radio recently, he explained that investment is coming into the county because it’s seen as a good place for developing renewable energy companies. He said: “These technologies are the future. They will save money in the long run and give us cheaper and more reliable and renewable energy sources”. He suggested that if the council shows signs of going backwards by dropping its net zero plan, then investors will look elsewhere and the county will lose out.

A spokesperson from the West Wales Climate Coalition said: “We’ve been talking with many local people recently who are appalled that Pembrokeshire are even thinking of backtracking on this. Anyone who’d like to sign the petition urging the Council to stick to their climate goals can find it at , Zero Carbon plan review petition or they can write to their councillor about it, using the helpful website writetothem.com.”

Pembrokeshire County Council’s current stated position is that in 2019 it “created an action plan to steer PCC towards becoming a net zero carbon local authority by 2030. The South Wales Energy Strategy provides a strategic pathway and the Pembrokeshire Local Area Energy Plan (LAEP) builds upon this work describing actions needed to reach energy and climate goals”.