Cornwall Council approves climate, human rights reviews in reports

Content of the article

Cornwall Council voted to direct staff to include a new section in council reports titled Climate Action Plan Alignment.

Content of the article

It follows a motion in the early spring presented by the alderman. Sarah Good and seconded by Councillor. Syd Gardiner will consider the opportunity for climate and human rights lens sections to be added to council reports.

At the time, Good said that including a climate lens in decision-making processes was essential for effective action on climate change, and at this week’s meeting she expressed her satisfaction that things will move forward.

“It seems like a natural next step in the evolution of the climate action plan and (and) the climate adaptation plan (incorporating it into reports to council),” Good said.

Matthew Stephenson, the city’s acting director of human resources, confirmed to Good and others that human resources will include language in its reports identifying how the city mitigates and manages the human rights lens in the context of the report itself.

Content of the article

cone Elaine MacDonald praised Good for his work promoting the climate lens, saying it was timely and vital at such a dangerous time.

“Reinforcing this as part of every report that comes to us will certainly increase people’s awareness and hopefully fear,” MacDonald said. “Climate change is here and it’s wreaking havoc everywhere. . . we can’t reverse it, we can’t stop it, but we hope to bend the curve and recognize its impact in every area of ​​our lives. It will certainly help us to have a better defense against climate change.”

Good said the point of the motion in the spring was to ask the administration to prepare a report on what such a climate lens would look like, that it would provide a mechanism for agenda items that might not surface to have an impact on the climate. would at least have a check and balance to ensure that such negative impacts can be mitigated and that the city has a plan to do so.

Council approved Cornwall’s Spring 2023 Climate Action Plan; one of the policy actions recommended in the plan was to update procedural regulations and board information practices to integrate a climate lens analysis in all reports to the board to ensure the integration of emissions implications of capital and operational decisions.

[email protected]

Share this article on your social network