COVENTRY Councillor Dr Kindy Sandhu spoke about the need for diversity in the climate change debate during this week’s Labour Party conference.
Coun Sandhu explained to the conference in Liverpool why some communities may find it difficult to reduce their carbon footprint.
She said: “If you face barriers to riding bikes such as your clothing or society’s view of you as a woman cycling, then those barriers need to be understood, recognised and planned for in any climate agenda.
“If your family have left poverty and come to the UK to make a better life then driving a 4 x 4 is a marker of your success not huffing and puffing up a hill on a bike as I do.
“Only when we engage with communities to support them to remove those barriers and how they experience them, will we fully succeed in our climate goals.
“Often I am the only woman of colour in the room when climate change is on the agenda.
“When we talk about the climate agenda, a green economy we tend to focus on transport, energy and other hard infrastructure.
“These are important, but we have to also ensure that people are at the centre of our thinking and that we consider the importance of diversity within green agenda.
“For example, we need to pay more attention to people’s motivations for not choosing to actively reduce their carbon footprint, or think about whose voices are often missing from discussion and decision making around the climate agenda.”
