Have your say on Mansfield's future in climate change survey

The council has launched a six-week public consultation with an online questionnaire for residents and businesses at www.mansfield.gov.uk/climatechange. Printed copies of the survey are also available at the reception of the Civic Centre and at libraries in the district.

The consultation is part of the council's ambition to achieve a 'net zero' on its carbon footprint by 2040, after formally declaring a climate emergency in 2019.

Coun Andy Burgin, Portfolio Holder for Environment and Leisure, said: "While the draft Climate Change Strategy sets out our ambitions, we believe consulting with the public takes us closer to the council being able to adopt this strategy.

"This, in turn, will put us in a much stronger position if or when any public funding on tackling climate change becomes available.

"Global warming and the climate change consequences of it are probably the biggest challenges facing the entire human race in the coming decades so we really hope people view this consultation with the seriousness it deserves and spare us 15 minutes to complete this survey.

"It is worth recognising that the district's carbon emissions have steadily declined over the past 15 years, by more than 40 per cent, which is in line with national trends.

"But an immediate and rapid programme of decarbonisation is needed if Mansfield is to hit targets for local authorities based on the Paris Agreement, which aims to keep a rise in global temperature to well below 2C this century and preferably limit the increase to 1.5C, and with emissions to be net zero by around 2050."

The results of the public consultation will feed into the development of an action plan which will set out how the council aims to become a carbon neutral authority.

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