Call from climate group to be heard

Stourbridge Friends of The Earth is calling on people concerned about climate change to make their presence felt at Dudley Council.

The authority is set to debate a motion on prevention and resilience to extreme weather at an extraordinary meeting on November 2.

The motion has been put forward by Dudley’s Liberal Democrat leader, Cllr Ryan Priest, who says recent wildfires in Stourbridge demonstrate potentially devastating effects of climate change.

A statement on Stourbridge Friends of The Earth’s website said: “The recent fires in Stourbridge have shown how quickly a wildfire can threaten homes, wildlife and the local environment.

“This meeting is an opportunity to show the council how seriously residents take the issue and to call for effective measures to help prevent and respond to future fires, so that Stourbridge does not face this again.

“The more people who attend, the stronger our message and the greater the chance the council will listen.”

The group highlights data published by Climate Emergency UK (CEUM) which scores every local authority on what it is doing to tackle climate change.

Scores are based on seven sections; buildings and heating, transport, planning and land use, governance and finance, biodiversity, collaboration and engagement and waste reduction and food.

The latest data from CEUK was published in June 2025 and gives Dudley a score of 24 percent, up from 16 percent at the previous survey in 2023.

Dudley sits towards the bottom of CEUK’s rankings which give comparable single tier authorities an average score of 41 percent.

Councils in the West Midlands Combined Authority which scored higher overall than Dudley were Sandwell Council with 37 percent, Coventry scored 41 percent and Solihull and Birmingham both scored 44 percent while Walsall was lower on 23 percent and Wolverhampton managed 15 percent, just two points away from last place.

In 2020 Dudley Council declared a climate emergency and in 2024 published the first phase of its Climate Action Plan which identifies actions it planned to take for three years to fight climate change.

In his introduction to the plan, Dr Rob Clinton, the then Dudley cabinet lead for climate change, said: “We have a duty as caretakers of the planet to help tackle this human induced challenge and to put actions in place to help safeguard Dudley’s residents, communities, businesses, and the local environment from climate change.

“However, the scale of this challenge cannot be underestimated. As such, the council has set itself an ambitious target to become carbon net zero by 2030 and to work with partners to become a net zero borough by 2041.”

A report about the council’s performance on delivering the aims of the action plan was presented to the authority’s Overview and Scrutiny Committee (Core Business) on November 5 2025.

Councillors were told the authority had reduced its carbon emissions by 16.9 percent since 2022.

The report, signed by Nick McGurk, Dudley group director communities and growth, said: “One of the main reasons for this decrease in emissions is due to rationalisation of the council estate and overall energy efficiencies made in areas such as heating, electricity and street lighting.”

By Martyn Smith | Local Democracy Reporting Service