Last week Cllr Lisa Trickett and CANWM (Climate Action Network West Midlands) launched a Call to Action about the Council’s Climate Emergency. Since then it has been supported by more than 30 organisations including Midlands TUC, FBU, GMB WM, Unison WM, Unite, and Birmingham District NEU.Below is the email that Cllr Trickett sent to all Councillors today containing the Call to Action and the list of supporters. Tomorrow the Council will discuss the Labour leadership’s policy and plan.
Subject: Birmingham Climate Emergency – A Community Call to Action for a Just Transition
Dear Colleague
On Tuesday 15th September a report on Birmingham City Council’s response to the Climate Emergency is being presented to the full Council meeting. The Council declared a climate emergency in June 2019 however the Council are still not able to publish an action plan. It is vital that we create a sense of urgency and ambition to deliver a just climate transition for all our communities.
The civic family in Birmingham have come together alongside councillors and residents representing the breadth and depth of community interest in our City in a collective call to action for a just transition in Birmingham.
The attached call to action has been endorsed by a spread of civic society, green networks and grassroots organisations with cross-cutting community representation in their membership. The full list of organisations is set out below.
For those of us who are part of the Labour movement you would be heartened to know that the call to action has been endorsed by Midlands TUC, FBU, GMB WM, Unison WM, Unite and Birmingham District NEU.
We are in the process of collating the names and numerous individual responses from across the city suffice to say we have frontline workers, owners of small businesses, academics, entrepreneurs, and politicians from across the region.
In considering the report tomorrow we ask you to hear the collective voice of Birmingham’s civic community amplified through this call to action and seek a way forward that shares our ambition to create a socially just, thriving, zero carbon city. Thank you to those fellow Councillors who have already stepped forward and supported this call to action. We look forward to hearing from many more of you.
Solidarity
Lisa
Acting with the following organisations who have endorsed the call to action:
Climate Action Network West Midlands (co-sponsor of the call to action) Midlands TUC, GMB WM, Unison WM, Unite, FBU, Birmingham Youth Climate Strikers, Greener Birmingham Coalition, Friends of the Earth Birmingham, Circular Economy Club Birmingham & The Midlands, Community Energy Birmingham, Extinction Rebellion Birmingham, LGND Brum, Ecobirmingham, Sustainability West Midlands, TAWS, The Junk Food Project Birmingham, Green Lane Mosque, Birch Network, Globally Local, Let’s Grow Together, 1000 Trades, Places in Common, Brum Baby Bank, Slow Food Birmingham, Eat Make Play B16, Link Road Community Collective, Jai Jagat 2020UK, Central England Quaker Climate Emergency Action, Footsteps – Faiths for a Low Carbon Future, Eco Sutton, The Pound Project, Divest West Midlands Pension Fund, Companions for Hope.
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The Council meeting papers can be downloaded here: https://birmingham.cmis.uk.com/birmingham/Decisions/tabid/67/ctl/ViewCMIS_DecisionDetails/mid/391/Id/9399444a-1b59-4ad5-a637-0759fb0d1159/Default.aspx and you can watch the meeting broadcast live online here: http://civico.net/birmingham/democratic-services/10665#tab-agenda
Birmingham Against The Cuts 
Species extinction isn’t waiting around for people vacillate and argue. This includes our own demise. However capitalist expediency lays down the rules with the neoliberal model intent on ensuring this is saved at all costs.