Activists from Extinction Rebellion (ER) protested in front of Stirling Council’s headquarters this week and accused the authority of backing down on a pledge to tackle the climate crisis.
A group of XR Stirling protesters demonstrated with banners outside Viewforth to confront the local authority on what they said was its “disgraceful” lack
of action on its Climate and Nature Emergency Plan.
The council declared a climate emergency in October 2019 - a month on from a climate change protest outside Viewforth which was attended by around 300 people, many of them school pupils. It later pledged to accelerate its own plans to reduce carbon emissions to zero as soon as practicable and asked senior managers to report back with actions for “real and sustainable progress”.
But Extinction Rebellion activists said this week, the council had yet to take any meaningful action on its Climate and Nature Emergency Plan.
One said: “Many well-researched environmental plans have been placed in front of the council but none have been acted on. Extinction Rebellion Stirling do not believe the council is taking their commitment to tackle the climate emergency seriously and not treating it with the urgency it deserves.
“Stirling Council, like other councils around Scotland, have made promises and given assurances that they will act on the climate emergency but none have delivered on these.
“Stirling Council hasn’t reduced emissions, haven’t divested their pension fund from fossil fuels, haven’t made much progress on moving to a circular economy or retrofitting their existing housing stock and they certainly haven’t “transformed the Stirling area into ‘Scotland’s greenest region’ as they promised to do in their Alive with Nature Plan.”
Another said: “As the postponed COP15 global conference on biodiversity gets underway next week, we’re reminded that Stirling Council signed the Edinburgh Declaration which commits them to take action to protect and restore nature and biodiversity.
“The perfect opportunity for them to deliver on this commitment would have been to vote through and implement the recommendations in the Pollinator Strategy Plan. This plan has been with the council for two years now, and yet, despite assurances by the environment, transport and net zero committee, formerly the housing and environment committee, that the Pollinator Strategy plan will be put on their meeting agenda and voted through, it remains consistently absent.
“We’ve also noticed this committee does not have cross party representation as there is no representative from the Green Party.
“We call into question [the council’s] commitment to the previous administration’s declaration of a climate emergency and we urge them to place environmental issues at the top of their agenda next year before it’s too late.”
Earlier this year the council set a target of planting more than one million new trees and managing half its land for biodiversity by 2045, with at least 80,000 trees to be planted by the end of 2023 and 160,000 by 2025, working with key partners, communities and landowners as part of its ‘Alive with Nature’ Plan. Other “high priority actions” on the plan included: the rollout of three new active travel routes incorporating green infrastructure by 2024; creation of biodiverse areas within 10 school grounds and business parks; changes to land management, including grass and verge maintenance and use of pesticides, in line with its Pollinator Strategy; and bringing vacant and derelict land sites into productive use for nature, business and community.
A Stirling Council spokesperson said this week: “Averting climate change can only be achieved by collective action but the council has taken the lead in tackling the climate emergency locally.
“Since 2006/07, the council has reduced its carbon emissions by almost 50 per cent and has implemented a string of transformational sustainability projects to improve and protect the environment in recent years.
“We have substantially invested in active travel, such as the Walk, Cycle Live Stirling Project with construction scheduled for completion in the summer of 2024. Other key projects include the introduction of a ground breaking District Heating Network, the Sustainable Growth Agreement with SEPA and the launch of a low carbon travel hub.”
