First Green Councillor to chair Climate Change Forum
East Lothian Council has announced the establishment of a cross-party working group to tackle Climate Change and Sustainability, to be chaired by Scottish Greens Councillor Shona McIntosh.
The working group is expected to review the Council’s Climate Change strategy and feed into a parallel working group on budgets.
Cllr McIntosh said:
It is a great honour to be chairing this new initiative. There is a well-known pattern at many levels of government, where climate commitments are not always accompanied by the action required to cut emissions, and I am determined we will not make that mistake here in East Lothian.
I hope to use the group to agree ambitious interim targets to deliver us to net zero well in advance of the 2045 date that East Lothian Greens have always argued is too late.
I also want to look in detail at how to tackle East Lothian’s emissions from car transport, which are growing rather than shrinking.
Cllr McIntosh is preparing for the first meeting in partnership with the Council’s Head of Place, Douglas Proudfoot, and Heads of Service will be on the group as well as representatives of all the other parties on the Council.