All 5 of your Green Party KCC candidates in Dover district are signed up to the ABCD pledge of South East Climate Alliance. Because problems aren’t solved by pretence or by greenwash by the powerful who have a vested interest in slowing change.
A
We want KCC and DDC to AIM higher on climate justice and set a net zero target for the whole DDC council area and Kent by 2030; to match the UK COP26 target for 2030, which is 68% reduction on 1990 carbon levels. We proposed climate emergency declarations in June + July 2019 for Deal TC, Walmer PC and Dover TC to become net zero carbon emitters by 2025 with honest carbon auditing. People power filled council chambers and our proposals got passed! We welcomed DDC in Jan 2020 when it voted through a Climate emergency to become a net zero carbon organisation by 2030. But . . . currently DDC and KCC targets for DDC council area and Kent look at a distant 2050 targets, hence ‘aim higher’.
B
We want DDC and KCC to respect grassroots community climate campaign groups and BUILD partnerships. In Kent where one party is dominant on 9 of 12 District councils (which all use the single-party cabinet system), all policy is decided by 9 x 7 persons = 63 portfolio holders of a single political party, one which rarely disagrees with central government, a party that tends to recognise medium and large businesses as stakeholders, but which rarely accepts views of councillors of other parties, and rarely recognises community groups and small businesses as stakeholders, because of Kent’s democratic deficit. (94% of its MPs are Conservative but only 40% of 1.3m electorate voted Conservative in 2019). Stroud DC’s Climate Strategy includes two-way dialogue between the district council and the umbrella group, Climate Action Stroud, and this is a model we want to see developed in Kent and in Dover.
C
We want KCC and DDC to COMMUNICATE better with the public and make sure that consultations involve a much higher proportion of the public, so that the rapid change that climate & ecological emergency action involves can be implemented in ways which communities think is workable and effective and socially just. With more council honesty and openness will come greater public trust and then more public willingness to shift to low-carbon lifestyles, we believe.
D
We want KCC to DIVEST from fossil fuels (stranded assets) in relation to their multimillion pound pension fund investments. How can councils recognise the climate emergency yet ignore the impact of their multi-million pound pension fund investments in polluting fossil fuel companies, in pesticides and big pharma? We ask the outgoing Conservative KCC councillors who were elected in 2017, why haven’t you done this on your watch? We call on all DDC councillors to push KCC to divest, 5 of 7 outgoing KCC cllrs in Dover are both KCC + DDC cllrs, double hatters.
We have also signed up to pledge2030.org
