Dorset Council declared a Climate Emergency in May 2019 and, if serious about protecting the wellbeing of future generations, needs to demonstrate leadership in dramatically reducing the County's CO2 emissions and within a very short timeframe.
As Sir David Attenborough stated last year, we may have only 10 years remaining to prevent potential run-away climate change and the destruction of the natural environment on which we all depend.
Reducing the Council's own CO2 emissions would set a good example, but only represent 2% of the county's emissions. The Council needs to show leadership at the county-wide level.
By far the biggest opportunity would be to support offshore wind turbines at a scale similar to the 900MW Navitus Bay offshore wind energy project.
If this was operational, together with existing solar electricity generation, the entire electricity consumption in Dorset, Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole would be from zero carbon renewable energy generation – at no cost to the council and accompanied by hundreds of new jobs.
There are also economic benefits for everyone.
The cost of offshore wind power has halved since the Navitus Bay planning application was turned down by the Secretary of State and is now cheaper than new fossil fuel generation and half the cost of electricity from the proposed Hinckley C nuclear power plant.
The Dorset Green Party believes that the sight of wind turbines 10 miles off the Dorset coast, far from spoiling the view, would actually give young people hope for the future.
