Belleville City staff are recommending council follow the direction of the city’s Green Task Force and declare a Climate Emergency at its meeting on Monday afternoon.
The recommendation comes after a deputation from concerned citizen Ruth Silver in January 2021, where she outlined the changing climate in the Quinte Region and the need to take immediate action on those issues.
While declaring a Climate Emergency isn’t a binding decision, like a State of Emergency, staff say it does “indicate a clear sense of urgency and is a call to action for City staff and residents.”
A report from General Manager of Environmental Services Perry DeCola says the local temperature has warmed by more than 1.8 degrees Celsius over the past 100 years and that “precipitation events appear to be larger and more intense”, with the expectation that those trends will continue if nothing is done.
510 other communities in Canada have also made similar declarations, including Prince Edward County, Peterborough, Cobourg and Kingston, locally.
