When Cornwall Council declared a climate emergency in January it was one of the first major local authorities to do so.

This week the UK became the first country to declare a climate emergency - a move which followed extensive protests and campaigns by environmentalists.

But what does a climate emergency mean and what will Cornwall Council actually be doing?

It would seem to be a simple question but actually defining what a climate emergency is and what it means is proving to be something of a stumbling block.

Councillor Sue James, Cabinet member for environment, has been one of the most prominent campaigners for the environment in Cornwall in recent years.


She said: "The difficulty is that it means something different for different people.

"To me I want everybody to look at what they can do  to reduce their carbon emissions and what everybody can do to help the environment.

"But it is not only about reducing things - people get depressed if they think they are being told they can't drive or go on holiday anywhere. It is important to show the positive impacts of these changes.

"If you are talking about reducing your energy consumption, that will save you money. Making sure your home is well insulated will also save you money. These things will all help.

"It's not about making people miserable. It is about planting trees."

Councillor Sue James is the Cabinet member in charge of environmental policy at County Hall

Rachael Bice is leading on the work that Cornwall Council is doing in relation to the climate emergency and has been working on the environmental growth partnership that the council leads.

She made a comparison between the climate emergency debate and Brexit - in the same way that Brexit has divided people with different levels of opinion.


When looking at climate change there are those at the far end of the scale who want to take all necessary action to prevent and reduce climate change - at the other end there are those who don't believe in climate change at all.

However, while Brexit has continued to prove divisive both Rachael and Sue are clear that it is important that climate change does not go the same way.

Rachael said: "When it comes to democracy and engagement we need to enable all those views to be heard."

She added: "We have some great people in Cornwall who are doing things like the 10 pledges to help the environment and the plastic free campaigns.

"There are probably things that, if everybody did them, then it could help. It is about ramping up participation in the easy things but also being prepared to have the difficult conversations which need to happen."

Rachael added: "We need to have that constructive dialogue so that we can have the conversations which will lead to the decisions about what we can do.

"But it is also important that we allow failure - that is one of the big things that we don't allow public institutions to do. Sometimes failure can be a sign of success as you can learn from it.

"Our job in the civil service is to bring together all the information in a transparent way so that we have lots of different options and then present recommendations which will allow politicans to make the decisions."


At present the council is drawing up an action plan which will be presented to councilliors at the end of this month before it is eventually adopted and will set out what the council will do.

The council has already been at the forefront in a lot of ways by supporting renewable energy schemes, promoting the environmental growth strategy and this week launched a pollinators strategy.

One of the key elements of the climate emergency declaration was the ambition for the council to be carbon neutral by 2030.

This has led to comments from some people that this will be impossible with the council supporting things like Cornwall Airport Newquay.

But as both Rachael and Sue were keen to point out, being carbon neutral does not mean cutting out carbon entirely but would be becoming net carbon neutral. By offsetting carbon emissions the council then allows for things like the aiport.

Rachael highlighted that Cornwall has been a key area for renewable energy for many years and that this could continue.

She said the Government should see Cornwall as a powerhouse for the rest of the country and highlighted that there was capacity to increase the amount of energy generated through wind turbines and solar farms in Cornwall which are restricted by their output due to the national grid.

There is also work being undertaken to create offshore windfarms off the coast of Cornwall.


Sue said: "It's not about absolute zero, it is about net zero. We have things like the environmental growth strategy and the pollinators strategy which are fundamental to improving the situation and we had these before the climate emergency.

"We also need more trees. Cornwall has a lack of tree canopies and I am absolutely committed to improving that as one of the things we can do."

Cornwall Council is currently looking to work with the Cornwall Wildlife Trust on a project called "build with nature" which has already started in Gloucestershire.

Sue explained: "In the past developers would come in, clear an area of land and then have to commit to planting trees and green spaces. But what this does is that rather than clearing the land developers would be encouraged to work with and around nature."

The council is also looking to encourage farmers to work with nature and will be encouraging those on the county farms estate to help with this.

Sue said it was important to help people to understand what they can do to make a difference.

She said: "There is a danger that everybody expects someone else to do something and the other challenge is that people will say, 'what is the point in me doing something if the likes of China are not doing anything?'.

"My anxiety is that I have a granddaughter aged three and I want to be able to look her in the eye in 10 years' time and know that disaster is not going to hit. I feel a responsibility to do something.

"I feel that individually and I feel that if we all do something individually that does put pressure on councils and governments to do something as well. And that, in turn, puts pressure on businesses as well."

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She added: "I have a birthday coming up and my husband asked me what I wanted and I looked at my carbon footprint and realised I don't want anymore stuff, I have got all the stuff I need. So I have asked him to plant some trees and that is what we will do.

"We need to move away from this throwaway culture and it is about improving quality of things as well.

"We are also obsessed with ownership - if we looked more to leasing or renting things like washing machines, cars and so on then the manufacturers would have to make them of a better quality.

"People have a go at me for having an electric car, saying that it's alright for me because I can afford it. But if we were not so obsessed with ownership we could lease an electric car and it would be affordable."

One of the key changes which has come about since the council declared a climate emergency is that the authority is taking the issue more seriously.

Sue said that she was confident that the senior management at County Hall is making it a priority.

And she said the environment and climate change were no longer seen as the responsibility of one department but in every single department at the council.

Rachael said: "We need to encourage everybody to do all that they can but not vilify people for not going all the way."