Flintshire celebrates Wales Climate Week

Wales Climate Week was celebrated last week with events organised by Flintshire County Council.

These events were a few of many taking place throughout Wales, organised by a range of organisations and individuals coming together for Wales Climate Week. Running between the 4th and 8th of December, the theme of this year's Wales Climate Week was, 'How do we tackle climate change in a fair way?'.

It is an incredibly important question which Flintshire County Council looked to support through public engagement at Ruthin Market Hall and Wepre Park, in collaboration with Denbighshire County Council’s Climate Team, Clwydian Range and Dee Valley AONB, Natural Resources Wales and Biogen.

Members of the public met with the various teams, discussing the climate and nature emergencies and the ongoing work towards addressing them. Focussing on climate change, people calculated their carbon footprints, taking home simple and accessible actions, like washing clothes at 20°C, to contribute to a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.

Welsh Government’s 'Climate Conversations' consultation was also held where the public could give their thoughts on two presented questions helping to develop Welsh Government's Just Transition Framework. Conversations focussed on how emissions can be reduced in a fair way ensuring better places to live and work, and also how the public can be involved in action on climate change fairly.

Many topics were covered such as public transport, financial support and waste, and were informative, full of energy and a valuable opportunity for people have their thoughts heard. These conversations will be fed back to Welsh Government and will also support development of Flintshire County Council’s current and future climate action.

A tree planting event was also held at Flint solar farm. This event saw Flintshire County Council staff and volunteers from Equans, who installed the solar farm, come together to plant over 300 trees. Plans were put in place for this planting following Storm Arwen in 2021 which caused damage to the solar farm. This planting will grow to create a shelterbelt, providing the solar farm with protection during periods of heavy wind. Not only will these trees provide protection from the wind, they will also play a critical role in mitigating climate change and increasing biodiversity.

This planting is one of many which is currently taking place across the county and follows targets set out within Flintshire County Council’s Urban Tree and Woodland Plan and the Climate Change Strategy. The Urban Tree and Woodland Plan sets out a target of a achieving an urban canopy cover of 18% by 2030. In order to achieve this target, we will continue to carry out substantial new tree planting in conjunction with maintaining our existing canopy cover by providing replacement planting where tree removal is necessary.

Member for Environment, Councillor David Healey, said:

“The climate and nature emergencies are significant challenges we face today and in the future. It is exciting to see Flintshire County Council collaborating with Denbighshire County Council, Biogen and Natural Resources Wales for Wales Climate Week to engage with members of the public providing support, understanding and the opportunity to voice their thoughts on how climate change can be tackled in a fair way. This all builds towards a better future and we look forward to next year’s event.”