READING'S pledge to work towards a carbon neutral town by 2030 will be embedded across every area of the council’s work in the coming weeks.

Earlier this year, Reading Borough Council joined other local authorities nationwide in declaring a climate change emergency, pledging to work with partners towards a carbon neutral Reading by 2030.

To ensure that a ‘golden thread’ of helping to tackle the climate change emergency runs through all areas of the council's work, changes have been made to the council's constitution, which all standing committees on Reading Borough Council will now be asked to sign up to.

It would mean future council committee reports would include a section on environmental implications and mitigations.

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The council’s Adult Social Care and Children's Services and Education Committee will be the first to receive the Climate Emergency report next week (Monday, July 1).

It will then be considered by other Council Committees through the summer.

The full report can be found here.

Reading Borough Council has a long standing commitment to action on climate change.

A signatory to the Nottingham Declaration on Climate Change in 2006, it was one of the first authorities in the UK to produce a detailed Climate Action Plan.

Carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in Reading have fallen by 41 per cent, which is greater than all but 19 of the 405 authorities in Great Britain.

Reading Borough Council has reduced its own emissions by 53 per cent since 2008, reaching its own target three years early.

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Councillor Tony Page, Reading's lead member for Strategic Environment, Planning and Transport, said: "By creating a ‘golden thread’ of action on climate change across all areas of the Council’s work, we aim to give it the prominence and priority it needs across every single council service and committee.

"Committees will be expected to regularly report on the relevant elements of Reading’s Climate Change Strategy and the Climate Emergency Action Framework, ensuring services are held to account in public forums and that it remains top of everyone's agenda.

"The creation of a new Cleaner Air and Safer Transport Forum will also help add another level of scrutiny to the progress being made.

"What is completely clear however is that while the council will lead by example, this is not something the we can do alone.

"The scale of change needed to achieve a carbon neutral Reading by 2030 simply cannot be achieved without significant national policy changes and national and local actions by businesses and residents and other stakeholders.

"Reading’s Climate Change Partnership already has a broad representation across the business, community and the public sectors in Reading and this will need to increase significantly in the years to come.

"The very successful partnership event on June 13 underlined the commitment and enthusiasm to deliver these new targets."

An important element of the climate change report is a recommendation asking the council’s Chief Executive to write to the Government and local MP’s setting out the urgent need to equip local authorities with the policies, power and funding necessary to deliver on climate change.