Today, Ellie Chowns, the new Green MEP for the West Midlands, met Birmingham City Council Leader Cllr Ian Ward and CEO Dawn Baxendale. Ellie is spending the month of August travelling around the region meeting residents and local organisations, and has requested meetings with all the main local authorities to discuss two key issues: how to tackle the climate crisis, and the potential impact of Brexit.

Ellie said, “People from all parties are waking up to the urgency of the climate crisis. The science is clear – we need to shift to zero carbon as soon as possible, and that requires urgent cross-party action at all levels of government – local, national and international.”

“We have a real opportunity to transform our quality of life by investing in clean energy and new technologies, creating great public transport systems, and ensuring every home is warm and well-insulated, with more affordable energy bills. The ‘Green New Deal’ would create tens of thousands of well-paid, secure and sustainable jobs, upgrade our crumbling infrastructure, and make our economy more resilient in the face of increasingly frequent, damaging climate events, protecting people’s homes and livelihoods.”

“I’m delighted that Birmingham City Council has joined over 200 other local authorities in declaring a climate emergency. Today, I asked Cllr Ward for details of the Council’s plans for transitioning to zero carbon and underlined that warm words need to be translated into concrete action.”