A PUBLIC meeting was held on June 13 at Penrhyn Hall, Bangor as part of Climate Cymru’s Great Big Green Week, during which hundreds of events took place throughout Wales.

About 70 people, including county and town councillors, and members of the public, heard what action is being taken by Gwynedd, Ynys Môn and Conwy Councils to combat climate change and its impacts.

All three councils have declared a climate emergency and have made varying degrees of progress in developing plans to reduce their own carbon emissions, such as emissions associated with council buildings, waste disposal, land use, street lighting and procurement.

The meeting considered whether these actions go far enough and assessed ways in which the plans could be improved and potentially extended to cover other sources of carbon emission across the counties.

So far, councils have largely tackled the areas over which they have direct influence.

The audience were concerned that dealing with wider, territorial emissions which make up by far the larger percentage of emissions, is going to take a lot more work.

Climate considerations need to be embedded in all decisions taken within councils.

Awareness needs to be raised amongst council staff, and cascaded to the public in council communications.

Scientist Dr Hilary Wilson gave an overview of the scale and nature of the climate change issues we are facing.

People heard from Sam Ward of Climate Cymru about the UN-backed Race to Zero campaign in Wales, which is encouraging all levels of government, as well as other institutions and organisations, to adopt comprehensive climate plans aligned with the target of limiting temperature increase to 1.5°C.

The audience were keen for councils to sign up to this initiative and expressed the hope that councillors present will take this back to their groups to follow up.

Rick Mills from Divest Gwynedd explained why Gwynedd Pension Fund, the local authority pension scheme covering Gwynedd, Anglesey and Conwy County Councils, should abandon their remaining investments in fossil fuel companies and re-invest them in local projects such as social housing and renewable energy.

Group discussions came up with several suggestions for council focus, including improved public transport, active travel, social housing, building insulation and the Race to Zero initiative.

People felt strongly that communication between citizens and councils was key.

Organiser Alison Shaw said: “We hope this is just the start of developing a meaningful working relationship between the public and councils.

“In a climate emergency, it is essential we work together to create greener, resilient communities as a matter of urgency.”

The meeting was organised jointly by the environmental campaigning groups North West Wales Climate Action and Climate Cymru.

It was chaired by Conwy councillor Aaron Wynne and speakers included climate change officers Bethan Richardson from Gwynedd Council and Rhys Williams from Ynys Môn Council, and Sam Ward, Manager of Climate Cymru - a network of more than 330 organisations from every sector in Welsh society.