WEST Berkshire Council will debate declaring a climate emergency on Thursday evening in an extraordinary meeting.

The debate follows 2,009 people signing a petition which calls for the council to ‘declare a climate emergency and work towards West Berkshire becoming zero carbon by 2030’.

The petition was submitted by Councillor Steve Masters (Green, Newbury Speen) in January.

It calls for the council to invest in renewable technologies and capitalise on the growth in renewable innovation, and to ask the government to provide the powers and resources to make the 2030 target possible.

The petition also suggests providing an outline strategy by June 1, 2019, on how to start transitioning to a zero carbon future by 2030.

Cllr Masters said: “This is an ambitious target but one that is required. The council will be central in achieving this, coordinating and leading all the stakeholders involved.

“I am hopeful that the growing awareness the public has on the dangers of climate change and the surge in support for real action will come to bare, and see West Berkshire declare a climate emergency and show the leadership required to achieve the target of net zero carbon by 2030.”

The extraordinary meeting will start at 7pm in the council offices on Market Street, Newbury, and is open to the public to attend.

Extinction Rebellion, the campaign group, will demonstrate outside the offices on Thursday from 6.15pm. In April, the group occupied four sites in London and police arrested more than 1,000 activists.

At the start of May, parliament declared a climate emergency, and the Committee on Climate Change, the government’s official advisers, published a report which said the UK’s net greenhouse gas emission should fall to zero by 2050.

The report details how petrol and diesel cars should be switched for electric cars, clean power generation must be quadrupled, and millions of trees planted.

Across the UK, 59 councils have declared a climate emergency. 42 of these have a target of 2030 to be carbon neutral.