MANKIND has severely disrupted the planet’s biosphere. This is severely compounded by man-made global warming, which under business-as-usual, threatens to be catastrophic this century. Last Monday, reported temperatures in Greenland were a record 17 degrees Celsius whilst 2015 also set a global record average temperature and 2016 looks to be on a similar track.

The unrelenting rise in C02 levels, largely causing this global warming, is the ultimate expression of our unsustainable development in society whilst, instead, sustainable development needs to be about living within the carrying capacity of supporting ecosystems.

December’s Paris Climate Agreement, supported by 195 countries, is the first real step in stopping that rise in emissions and averting catastrophic change. But the legacy of greenhouse gas emissions means that our towns and cities will need to physically adapt and our communities will need a much stronger culture of active stewardship; something the Bolton & District Civic Trust has always encouraged.

Last Friday marked the start of the ratification process of this momentous global Agreement at the UN in New York and unprecedented in its 70-year is that more than 160 countries will attend the signing. This agreement already is starting to transform investment decisions. We will need a Bolton that is fit for the 21st Century, which will demand councillors and officers of the Council attuned to delivering sustainability.

Christiana Figueres, UN’s climate change lead and Executive Secretary, said last week about towns and cities, that it’s time to stop designing towns and cities: “We need to design and build cities that are built for woman, man and child, not for bridges and buildings. The quality of investment today equals the investment of energy tomorrow equals the quality of life forever.”

The Bolton & District Civic Trust, having been active in the Local Agenda 21 process in the 1990s, will continue to support and argue for a more sustainable, low-carbon Bolton and any development that contributes to that and improves the quality of life in the borough. We hope to be associated with initiatives that favour those aims, one of which should be a climate change awareness fortnight in early July.

Richard Shirres

Chairman

Bolton & District Civic Trust