Environment campaigners stormed out of a Surrey County Council (SCC) meeting after a motion to set a target to tackle climate change was “watered down” and voted through.
The council had been asked to commit to its “duty” to limit the negative impacts of climate breakdown and to pledge to make Surrey carbon neutral by 2030.
The motion, put forward by SCC’s only Green Party councillor Jonathan Essex, called for councillors to declare a climate emergency in the county and to take a leadership role with the boroughs and districts to look at ways to reduce production and consumption emissions.
But a last minute amendment was put forward by the ruling Conservative party cabinet member for environment, Councillor Mike Goodman, at the council meeting on Tuesday (March 19) - stripping back the pledge and deleting any reference to duty, targets and commitment.
The motion came just days after schoolchildren around the country, including pupils in Guildford, walked out of classrooms on Friday (March 15) protesting about climate change.
Councillors hit back at the last minute change to the motion criticising the council for “running in the opposite direction” of its responsibilities.
And there were heckles from the gallery as the vote was passed through as a group of residents from across the county, including Dorking, Farnham and Godalming, grabbed their placards and walked out of the public gallery shouting "shame on you".
Cllr Will Forster, Liberal Democrat, said the changes to a pledge or a commitment “negated” the proposals and ignored the two main key points to the paper.
He said: “This motion should have had cross-party support. It has had cross-party support elsewhere in the country.
“It’s clear that there is an appetite to lead on climate change.”
He said the children protesting were leading the way and that “the government, this council and the Conservatives aren’t”, adding: “They are not just not following those children, they are running in the opposite direction.”
Cllr Penny Rivers, Liberal Democrat, said she receives more emails on the subject of climate change than anything else.
But Cllr Goodman said the council was committed to climate change and listed a number of initiatives SCC has approved, saying the council was “among one of the greenest in the country”.
Action, he listed, included, reducing carbon emissions by changing street lighting; changing the way council staff work; low emissions planning policy promoting energy saving; electric buses in Guildford; a recycling strategy; and that school pupils were encouraged to walk and cycle.
He said they had secured more than £50 million of funding in the past three years to “improve the road network”.
He mentioned the county-wide single-use plastic strategy adding the county will be the first in the country to use only paper straws for consumers through its business.
Cllr Essex hit back and said “talk is cheap” and Cllr Goodman was “clutching at paper straws” by thinking they were doing enough.
He said all he was asking for was the council to make a commitment to plan and do something about climate change.
He said: “We don’t need to debate whether climate science is real or not, we need to get on and do something about it.”
The amendment was backed in a voted through by 52 votes to 13.
The final motion pushed through with 49 votes for, and 10 voting against. There were three abstentions.
