Wandsworth yet to wake up to climate emergency, says Extinction Rebellion

Wandsworth council is missing simple opportunities to dramatically reduce carbon emissions in the borough, Extinction Rebellion (XR) said last week during a 'Wake Up Wandsworth' campaign demonstration.

The campaign aims to push the council towards a series of targets concerning the borough's reduction of air pollution, protection of green spaces, collection of food waste and divestment away from fossil fuels.

XR member and Furzedown resident Pat Squires said: "We think really insufficient progress has been made, and it's not being treated as an emergency."

Her comments came at a demonstration outside Wandsworth Town Hall - the latest action taken by XR after a group of protestors crashed the council-organised Battersea Climate Festival on November 13.

The demonstration took place one month after XR Wandsworth delivered a scathing 'half term report', ripping into the local government's perceived lack of progress towards climate goals.

But councillors have decried the group's demands as unattainable and poorly considered, challenging XR's accusations of inactivity over the climate emergency with a recent University College London (UCL) report that spoke favourably about the progress of climate change initiatives in Wandsworth vs other local authorities.

What is the 'Wake Up Wandsworth' campaign and what are XR Wandsworth's climate demands?

Wandsworth council formally announced a climate emergency in July 2019, when council leader Ravi Govindia pledged to become carbon neutral by 2030, and a zero-emissions council by 2050.

Plans to meet these targets include a green overhaul of the council's vehicle fleet, tree-planting initiatives, introducing electric car charging points and food waste collection schemes.

But XR Wandsworth members were dissatisfied with the lengthy timeframes set out by Govindia, and after months of what they deemed to be poor progress decided to launch the 'Wake Up Wandsworth' campaign in April of this year.

Demonstrators from XR Wandsworth arrived to the council-organised 'Together on Climate Change' festival at Battersea Arts Centre on Nov. 13, where they orchestrated the removal of a stall set up by Shell

The campaign set forth a suite of far stauncher climate emergency demands designed to reduce the borough's contributions to climate change, with which XR Wandsworth expects the council to comply by May 2022 or earlier.

Squires, who joined XR in 2018 and is among the group's foremost campaigners in Wandsworth, did not hold back in her assessment of the council's commitment to meeting what the climate change movement believes are essential targets to curb the borough's carbon footprint.

"We think that the progress has been extremely limited, and Wandsworth really hasn't risen to the challenge," she said.

"We have set May 2022 as the deadline because that's the date of the next council election, and we think that Wandsworth council you'd imagine would have a vested interest in meeting those demands by that date.

"In April we challenged four different areas in relation to the council's progress around climate emergency, but they're missing opportunity after opportunity to make progress against those four areas of concern."

XR Wandsworth member Pat Squires talks to South West Londoner about the value of non-violent direct action and the group's progress thus far

Squires cited the slow rollout of a collect-and-compost scheme for food waste - an issue she said the council could've taken action on 'really very quickly' - and a reluctance to divest pension funds away from fossil fuels.

Squires also touched upon Wandsworth's poor air quality, specifying a report published in January 2021 which found that several sites in the borough were registering average levels of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) well above the 40 micrograms per cubic metre of air threshold enshrined in UK law.

London Air data suggests NO2 levels have only increased since then, with a the daily rolling average of NO2 levels in Putney High Street - one of the borough's most closely monitored locations - registering far higher in the final two weeks of October vs the first two weeks of January.

Daily rolling averages of NO2 levels at Putney High Street across 14 days in January 2021 vs October 2021 (data source: London Air)

Wandsworth Town Hall is the site of regular XR protests, just a stone's throw from the council offices

A man wearing a gas mask and hazmat suit holds a 'toxic waste zone' sign

Members of XR Wandsworth are pictured storming the 'Together on Climate Change' festival, organised by Wandsworth Council at Battersea Arts Centre on November 13 (credit: XR Wandsworth)

Council claims XR demonstrators 'are not working in the real world'

Though it may not be on track to meet XR Wandsworth's strict May 2022 deadline for policy change, the council takes umbrage with accusations that it is not taking the climate emergency seriously.

Councillor Steffi Sutters, a Conservative member of the cabinet responsible for Community Services and Open Spaces, said of XR Wandsworth: "They think that everything should be able to be done like that. But I'm sorry to say they're not really working in the real world.

"Being held to account doesn't bother me. I think it's absolutely the right thing to do. But they don't recognise all the things we have done."

Sutters put forth the example of food waste in the borough, for which she introduced a pilot collection scheme in early November - something XR should have been implemented borough wide months ago.

Wandsworth council collects around 30,000 tonnes of food waste each year, amounting to almost 43% of black bag waste, which is currently sent for incineration.

The collection scheme will see food waste from over 2000 homes in Southfields sent for anaerobic digestion to supply electricity to the national grid instead.

This is not a novel idea - 26 of the 33 borough councils in the capital already provide food collection services - but the councillor said the delay in the scheme's introduction was a deliberate move.

She insisted the delay would give the scheme a greater chance of success by allowing time for effective promotion, to observe the pitfalls of existing schemes, and to understand how to maintain engagement beyond the first few weeks.

David Averre speaks with Wandsworth Council Cabinet Member Steffi Sutters about the local authority's climate change initiatives and pressure it has faced from Extinction Rebellion.

"We found from other local authorities that when you start a food collection trial, everybody loves it, but over time people get sick of it despite the fact that the council has paid an awful lot of money to organise it.

"We're a local authority, a massive, massive local authority. We have to spend public money responsibly."

Sutters added that the completion of a successful pilot would be essential in helping the council to negotiate a new waste collection contract for anaerobic digestion in 2024, paving the way for the scheme to be implemented throughout the borough.

Meanwhile, Wandsworth council is one of the foremost local authorities in greening its fleet of vehicles and helping residents to move away from gas guzzling cars.

The borough has the highest concentration of electric vehicle charging points of any London borough except for the City at 34 per 100 electric vehicles - far higher than the national average of 12.5 and well ahead of the capital's 28.8 average.

A study published in September 2020 by UCL found Wandsworth to be one of the UK's most effective local authorities in terms of climate emergency action planning and its capacity to lower carbon emissions, ranking the borough in third position out of 33.

And Sutters insisted that the council pension fund's divestment away from fossil fuels - one of XR Wandsworth's main gripes - is 'nearly complete', having dramatically reduced its stakes in carbon intensive industries and switched funding to renewable energy companies.

Councillor Steffi Sutters discusses Wandsworth council's efforts to improve biodiversity in the borough

It remains to be seen how many of XR Wandsworth's demands the council will meet by May 2022, if any.

Squires assured South West Londoner that the group's sustained campaign of non-violent direct action will continue at least until next year's council elections, and believes XR's methods will continue to bring about change.

"A few weeks ago outside [the council building], one of the counsellors actually said to us, 'we wouldn't actually be doing a food waste pilot if it wasn't for you'. So, you know, that's a very small advance but we think, okay, we are making some progress here," she said.

Sutters for her part praised XR Wandsworth for their efforts in holding the council to account, but invited them to engage councillors in one-to-one, direct conversations.

"I think it's absolutely the right thing to do - we were outside the council [building] a few months ago and they were shoving leaflets at me and I go away and think about what they said. That's valuable.

"But they've never spoken to me in a one-to-one.

"Anybody can speak to me. That's what I'm here for. I'm here to serve the public, and if somebody has got something they want to put to me, we can have a civil conversation about it.

"I'll put my point they can put theirs and we will find the place in the middle that space where we can move."

News of Wandsworth council's climate change commitments and initiatives can be found on the council website.

_{All uncredited images supplied by XR Wandsworth, Markus Spiske/Unsplash and David Averre}