New hub set up in Derbyshire Dales to tackle climate change

The Derbyshire Dales Climate Hub is a sub-group of the Derbyshire Climate Coalition and is made up of Dales residents who have come together specifically to offer help and support to Derbyshire Dales District Council, who recently celebrated the first anniversary of their Declaration of a Climate Emergency, which aims to commit the council to becoming carbon neutral by 2030.

The council’s Climate Change Working Group has commissioned a report from consultants ClearLead, to assess how the authority can reduce its own carbon footprint and councillor David Chapman, chair of the working group, has agreed to meet the group online on July 20.

The Hub wishes to support the council in its communications with the wider public about the Climate Emergency, and ways in which people can help mitigate its impacts.

They plan to hold online public meetings, and face to face ones as soon as it becomes possible, and further develop a survey, which has already been trialed in the Derbyshire Dales.

A survey of more than 130 residents’ views on climate change, carried out at supermarkets and town centres earlier this year, was cut short by the lockdown but interim results found people were extremely concerned about both the climate and the decrease in diversity in wildlife.

Results revealed 72 per cent put improve sustainable transport in their top five priorities and 67 per cent thought public investments should be moved away from fossil fuels.

Wendy Bullar, a hub member, said: “We are not a campaign group, but an informed and responsive group of concerned citizens. We are able and willing to support the council and the wider community to fulfill this ambitious yet essential carbon target. We see this as a collaborative approach in response to what inevitably will be a complex and difficult social learning process.

“We anticipate gaining wider support and participation from a community which has felt the full impact of the Covid-19 crisis.

"For example, the questionnaire, to be carried out across the district, could add questions to explore the effect of the crisis on people’s views about tackling climate change.”