County leaders face pressure over climate change

Derbyshire's Reform UK leaders have faced criticism over their approach to climate change after scrapping a key council strategy on the issue.

Councillors were met with protests organised by climate activists and a series of public questions on environmental issues during a meeting of the full council on Wednesday.

The Derbyshire Green Party unsuccessfully tried to force the council to rethink its strategy and "include an unambiguous recognition of man-made climate change".

Council bosses said the new strategy is based on "common sense" and Alan Graves, leader of the authority, said in a BBC interview he does not believe climate change is man-made.

An aim to tackle the causes and impact of climate change was scrapped last year, with leaders citing the costs of net zero - though no figure was given.

The leadership also scrapped the council's climate change committee as one of its first acts on gaining power in Derbyshire.

In July, the council's leaders voted in favour of introducing a new environment strategy setting out the authority's environmental approach until 2030, after the previous one expired last year.

It contained a number of themes including "caring for Derbyshire's natural environment", "using energy, fuel and water efficiently" and "maintaining and improving air quality".

However, some opposition councillors told the BBC they were concerned the strategy was too vague and did not contain clear targets.

The strategy contains no explicit reference to climate change and was rubber stamped without the wider consultation used for the previous strategy, which included advice from technical experts.

The new strategy replaced the council's previous framework on the environment put in place by the former Conservative administration, Climate Change Strategy: Achieving Net Zero, which expired in 2025.

It set out how the council aimed to achieve net zero by 2032 and support the county more widely in reaching net zero by 2050.

The majority of the questions from the public submitted to leaders for discussion at the meeting this week were on climate change and environmental concerns, including wildfires and net zero costs.

One read: "I am a retired engineer, and my daughter is an environmental scientist...Can you please explain your sources of information and authority for repealing the climate change strategy and please tell us how you plan to reduce the council's carbon emissions in line with government plans to meet net zero?"

The Green Party in Derbyshire also brought a motion to the council proposing the new environment strategy be amended to "include unambiguous recognition of man-made climate change as a core driver for decision-making."

"The new strategy is supported by an action plan which does not contain a specific commitment to measure the council's overall carbon footprint and nor does it set quantified carbon reduction targets for its operational activities," the motion stated.

"The above deficits mean that the strategy is incomplete and a weaker document than it should be. There is international scientific consensus that global warming, and its consequent environmental impacts, is caused by human activity. The proof is all around us."

Lisa Hopkinson from the Derbyshire Climate Coalition, who organised protests at County Hall before the meeting, said she was "appalled" by the "outright climate denial of the leader".

"I think most people in Derbyshire are concerned about the extreme weather events that we've all experienced...we've had droughts, we've had wildfires on Tintwistle Moor, and we've had serious heatwaves this summer," she said.

"It's going to get more severe and more frequent, those events, and we need to adapt to those risks."

In response, leader Alan Graves told the meeting the party was focused on "delivery" not "more plans", and that their environment plan prioritised "cleaner air, less waste, warmer homes and lower energy bills".

"We have all seen where target-chasing leads, net zero by this date, net zero by that date, and what do residents get? Reports.

"We will be judged on what we deliver, not on what we declare."

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