We welcome the appointment of Mete Coban MBE to lead Hackney's efforts to tackle the climate crisis and we are pleased that he has already acknowledged the climate emergency as a priority.

Hackney formally declared an emergency in 2019.  We produced a community response to that declaration in November that year as a contribution to the citizen's assembly that was then imminent.  That assembly has since been postponed several times due to elections and Covid, though the document remains relevant. https://sustainablehackney.org.uk/profiles/blogs/where-are-we-with-...

As we start to emerge from the pandemic the climate crisis assumes new urgency in the run-up to Cop 26 and with even less time to avoid potentially catastrophic warming.  In the context of Cop26 we note that the UK government upped its decarbonisation target for 2030 and call on the council to at least match that ambition. 

We understand that an event is being planned in support of the Rebuilding a better Hackney agenda.  We support that agenda and we have participated in initial interviews as part of the planning for that event.  It is still not clear, however, if that event is intended to be the citizen's assembly.  We don't think a one day event with a broad focus on post-pandemic rebuilding can properly allow for public scrutiny of the Council’s progress and explore solutions to the challenges posed by climate change as promised in the climate emergency declaration.  https://hackney.gov.uk/rebuilding-a-better-hackney

We are looking forward to the publication of the Energy Strategy, which was expected last year and has still not emerged.  This will give much needed clarity on the scope, baseline and road map towards the council's carbon targets, and confirm whether the borough's share of the incinerator emissions are included, as previously suggested.

We look forward to working with the council and engaging as a community partner and will continue to scrutinise the council's progress and explore solutions to the challenges posed by climate change as promised in the climate emergency declaration.

We are pleased that Mete has accepted an invitation to our next steering group meeting on 31^st March and look forward to engaging with him then.