By Asitha Jayawardena

As our garden waste bin was emptied into the truck of the London Borough of Hounslow, I realised that it was Earth Day 2022.

London

The area of Greater London is 1,572 square km (607 square miles) and the estimated population is 9.5 million.

The City of London and 32 London boroughs form this entity of Greater London. Out of 32, there are 12 inner London boroughs and 20 outer London ones while the City of London forms the historic centre.

The London Borough of Hounslow

One of the 32 boroughs is Hounslow, which is in west London. Hounslow covers 21.6 square km and the estimated population is 270,000.

On 18 June 2019, the London borough of Hounslow declared a Climate Emergency, joining UK local authorities, the Greater London Authority and the national government. After the declaration, one pledge was to produce a Climate Emergency Action Plan in conjunction with the Greener Borough Strategy.

Draft Action Plan of The London Borough of Hounslow

A specialist consultancy Eunomia Research and Consultancy Ltd was selected to review the council’s current work in reducing its carbon emissions to net-zero by 2030. Moreover, wider emissions should also be reduced across the borough as quickly as possible to support the development of a local response to the declaration of a climate emergency. In the process, the council staff, the councillors and the local community were engaged to help understand local priorities and opportunities.

On 21 January 2020, the Councillors unanimously approved the draft plan of the borough’s Climate Emergency Action Plan for consultation and engagement. The draft Plan outlines seven key programmes for reducing the direct carbon emissions of the Hounslow council:

• Energy efficiency
• Renewable energy
• Electrify vehicle fleet
• Reducing employee transport
• Waste management
• Culture change and governance
• Sustainable investment and funding

In recognition of the community leadership role of the council, Hounslow will work across the borough with its strategic partners, businesses and the community to deliver a wider programme tackling all emissions attributed to activities in the borough:

• Retrofit Hounslow and deliver zero-carbon housing
• Sustainable travel promotion
• A transition to electric mobility
• Greening the borough
• Develop net-zero lifestyles
• Stimulate the local green economy

From 3 February until 27 April 2020, the council consulted on the draft action plan. The council engaged community groups in Hounslow in this online consultation and held two public events at Hounslow House on 27 February and 2 March 2020. Each was attended by over 100 members of the community, who learnt about the climate emergency in Hounslow and gave their feedback on the draft action plan.

The consultation of the Climate Emergency Action Plan received 135 responses while the Schools’ Survey aimed at children in Hounslow received further 195 responses. The responses were incorporated in preparing the final draft of the action plan.

Climate Emergency Action Plan 2020-2030

On 14 July 2020, the Cabinet approved the Climate Emergency Action Plan, kicking off the Council’s ‘Year of Action 2020/21’.

CLIMATE EMERGENCY ACTION PLAN 2020 – 2030 of the London Borough of Hounslow https://democraticservices.hounslow.gov.uk/documents/s162188/Climate%20Emergency%20Action%20Plan%20-%20Appendix%20A%20-%20Action%20Plan.pdf

Progress achieved in the first year of delivering the Climate Emergency Action Plan is available in the first Annual Progress Report 2020-2021.

Eight Earth Days more

Today is Earth Day 2022 and there will be eight Earth Days more until we reach 2030.

If we all get together to reduce the amount of carbon we produce in Hounslow, we will achieve the goal of the Climate Emergency Action Plan in 2030 (or eight Earth Days later) so that it will benefit not only Hounslow but wider London and beyond – I mean, Planet Earth!

More…

London Borough of Hounslow https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Borough_of_Hounslow

Hounslow’s Climate Emergency Declaration https://www.hounslow.gov.uk/info/20006/environment/2063/climate_emergency

CLIMATE EMERGENCY ACTION PLAN 2020 – 2030 of the London Borough of Hounslow https://democraticservices.hounslow.gov.uk/documents/s162188/Climate%20Emergency%20Action%20Plan%20-%20Appendix%20A%20-%20Action%20Plan.pdf

CLIMATE EMERGENCY ACTION PLAN 2020 – 2030: Annual Progress Report 2020-2021 https://lbhounslow.sharepoint.com/sites/InternetLinks/cc/Shared%20Documents/Forms/AllItems.aspx?id=%2Fsites%2FInternetLinks%2Fcc%2FShared%20Documents%2FWebsite%20documents%2FCMS%20Docs%2FClimate%20and%20Clean%20Air%20reports%2Fappendix%5FA%5Fclimate%5Femergency%5Fannual%5Fprogress%5Freport%5FAug21%2Epdf&parent=%2Fsites%2FInternetLinks%2Fcc%2FShared%20Documents%2FWebsite%20documents%2FCMS%20Docs%2FClimate%20and%20Clean%20Air%20reports&p=true&ga=1