Welcome for low-carbon commitment

I welcome the fact that Dundee City Council’s Policy and Resources Committee agreed to my amendment to commit Dundee City Council to redirect resources to low-carbon activities.  The amendment was to a report entitled Sustainable Dundee and the amendment sets a direction of travel for the council in the future.

I welcomed the Sustainable Dundee report which was before us, it covered a lot of important areas and brought together a lot of the work which the council is doing.  There was an excellent deputation from Mary Henderson of Friends of the Earth Tayside.  After listening to Mrs Henderson I felt that she had made a strong case for an amendment about the future direction of travel of the council with regard to low-carbon activities.

My amendment said ‘Where possible funds should be redirected from high-carbon activities to low-carbon sustainable and renewable activities and where funds are spent outside Dundee they should be redirected from high-carbon activities to low-carbon and renewable activities.’  This is about promoting a direction of travel for the council.

The council is the custodian of the resources of the citizens of Dundee and it is important that we are able to hand on the resources to our successors both in terms of cash, facilities and the environment.  I hope that this way of thinking will influence council thinking in terms of future policies.

I think that protecting our environment is important and I will work with anyone to help protect it.  It is crucial that we plan for a future low-carbon economy which protects jobs and services.  We need to invest in a workforce which is ready for this next stage of economic development.