Greenwich Council has become the latest authority to recognise a climate emergency.

Councillors from across the chamber backed a motion, originally put forward by Labour before a Tory amendment was brought forward.

The Royal Borough joins nearby Lewisham and Southwark in taking the step – but failed to mention the incoming Silvertown Tunnel, to the criticism of environmental activists.

The council plans to become carbon neutral by 2030 “or earlier”, pledging to develop a carbon neutral plan setting out how that will be achieved.

Matt Hartley, the leader of the opposition, told the Local Democracy Service: “I am really pleased that our amendment to strengthen the council’s approach through a new Greenwich carbon neutral plan has won unanimous support.  

“Crucially, this plan will also have to be brought back to full council for debate and a vote in January. We are keen to work with anyone interested in working with us to develop practical ideas to lobby for as the plan is developed.

“Climate change isn’t an issue of left or right, or Labour or Conservative – and I am pleased we have now agreed a firm cross-party consensus on this for the long term.”

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Councillors volunteered to make the authority free from single-use plastics by 2020, and to establish the first Greenwich partnership to focus on climate change.

Several Labour councillors spoke in favour of declaring an emergency months after campaigners were initially rebuffed.

Cabinet member Denise Scott-McDonald said: “We along with other local authorities are declaring a climate emergency in response to the intergovernmental panel report on climate change.

“The report fired a warning shot to the world, saying we have to do more to reduce global warming. Our work on climate change began a few years ago with the Greener Greenwich Strategy.

“Even though we have done this we need to do more, do more as a council and more to address this latest warning. More needs to be done at national and international level, but here in Greenwich we want to play our part.”

Planning chairwoman cllr Sarah Merrill added: “The borough has a projection of an increase in population. This has put pressure on the borough to provide social rented homes and housing.

“The government tells us we have units we have to deliver. We really need to tackle this climate change issue head on, we need ground breaking policies and lead the way here.

“I want us to encourage developers of major developments to do away with concrete. Encourage developers to build with laminated timber, which will help with the local economy.”

The Labour councillor also proposed for more infrastructure to alienate Southeastern and for the authority to revisit anaerobic digestion units.

Several councillors from both sides of the political divide spoke to the motion, which was welcomed as a first step by environmental campaigners, but stopped short of mentioning the controversial Silvertown Tunnel.

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The contentious river crossing has been criticised by campaigners who say it will make pollution worse at one of London’s hotspots, the Blackwall Tunnel.

Victoria Rance, an organiser of pressure group Stop the Silvertown Tunnel Coalition, told the LDR service after the meeting: “Whilst we congratulate them on the climate emergency, we found it astonishing that no mention was made of the Silvertown Tunnel.

“The Mayor of London has been lobbied hard by Greenwich Council in the past for new road river crossings, and at City Hall last week the case which Sadiq Khan gave for continuing with Boris Johnson’s carbon intensive and HGV friendly project could have been written by Greenwich Council.

“We are asking the Council to ask Sadiq to defer signing the contract, and re-examine the scheme in the light of the climate emergency.”

In response to a question on the tunnel, Cllr Scott-McDonald said: “The Silvertown Tunnel supports our sustainable transport objectives, including supporting regeneration of east London, reducing congestion and improving cross-river public transport links whilst not worsening air quality for local residents.”