IT WAS over 7 months ago that Brighton & Hove City Council declared a climate emergency, yet little seems to have happened since.

In an emergency there is normally a frenzy of activity to tackle the impending crisis. Instead we get councillors debating whether children should take part in the climate change strikes (Argus 10, September).

Does the irony of the situation not strike them? The children are striking because the older generations are doing very little to tackle climate change. Plenty of hot air and wild promises but very little meaningful action.

In the same edition of the Argus there is a letter from Cllr Lee Wares saying we must keep the Aquarium roundabout. But surely we should be looking at whether the roundabout is fit for purpose in the 21st century, not just keeping it because it’s been there a long time?

We desperately need to reduce carbon emissions from transport. These are higher than they were in 1990 and heading in the wrong direction. The Committee on Climate Change say we need to shift people out of their cars, while Friends of the Earth commissioned research shows we need to cut road

traffic by at least 20 per cent to meet our carbon targets.

To do this we need high quality and high capacity walking and cycling connections around the city to facilitate change. We also need to do much more to support buses to give people real choice in how they travel.

Yet during this emergency we have the council pushing a junction design at West Street to maximise car traffic while others campaign to keep the Aquarium roundabout.

Two key linkages in the cycle network which if things stay as they are will severely compromise our ability to reduce traffic and carbon emissions.

If politicians are not merely paying lip service to the climate emergency, we need to see some urgency and joined up thinking, particularly on transport and planning. The best way to get the children back in the classroom would be to start taking some meaningful action so they no longer have a reason to strike.

Chris Todd, 

Planning & Transport Campaigner, Brighton & Hove Friends of the Earth