• WE all know the damage climate change is doing to our planet. There is no time to lose if we want to leave a healthy planet to our children, and our children’s children.

Islington Labour has a range of radical policies to ensure we make our contribution to help tackle global warm­ing. Labour’s manifesto pledges us to work with Islington Council Pensions Board to move towards “divesting” the council’s pension fund away from companies that extract oil, gas and coal from the ground.

This is based on sound economic sense. The overall priority is that the pension fund delivers for its members. The Paris Agreement, signed by 195 countries in 2016, set out a global action plan to put the world on track to avoid dangerous climate change by limiting global warming to well below 2°C.

Companies whose economic model is based on extracting polluting, carbon-based energy sources that would not survive international agreements are not wise investments. Islington can work with other Labour-run councils to help ensure the divest­ment process is smooth, so the money is re-invested in the best interests of pensioners.

Labour’s manifesto makes other welcome commitments to directly improve our environ­ment, including working towards the long-term goal of Islington having net zero carbon emissions. The 2014-2018 council worked hard to ensure Islington is ahead of its 2020 carbon emissions target. We have an ambitious goal to make Islington energy self-sufficient in a generation.

Climate change is an international crisis, but a part of the solution lies in the hands of communities all over the world.

DAVE POYSER
Labour candidate, Hillrise ward