The Zero Carbon petition (with over 800 signatures from across the region) was introduced, and the following eight actions were recommended to move to a Zero Carbon region.
1)Divest the West Midlands Pension fund from fossil fuel investment.
2)Follow the lead being given by Swansea, Newport and Herefordshire regarding free public transport - let T4WM set up a feasibility study for its introduction in the West Midlands.
3)End the incineration of waste.
4)The WMCA should urge its residents to limit themselves to one return flight every two or three years, pending the development of zero carbon planes.
5)Local authorities within the WMCA area should promote proper climate and environmental studies in all schools.
6)Stop good money chasing bad with HS2 (apart from the environmental devastation it is causing, it is vastly over-priced, will not link to the European High-speed network and has three dead-end stations, London, Birmingham, and Manchester. The Solihull Interchange Station will churn up more green belt land and as for its aim to encourage more economic growth, our planet is not coping with the current level of economic activity, we certainly do not need more of it).
7)Trams are more accessible than buses and trains for disabled people and prams, but they are also very expensive to build and emit a huge amount of CO2 from cement and steel in construction - so the compromise is to stop new growth of this network and use the money to upgrade the current bus and train network instead.
8)As part of accelerating the domestic heating and insulation retrofitting program, can we have the plan for retrofitting published?
The other part of the petition was to call for an open regional forum to allow citizens to discuss the WMCA’s “Net Zero by 2041” plan. This has been agreed and the first meeting will take place on Thursday, March 31st from 6-8pm.
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