Last November, following two months of research & deliberation, the Leeds Climate Change Citizens’ Jury released their recommendations to answer the question “What should Leeds do about the emergency of climate change?”.
Their recommendations covered a wide range of measures including the public ownership of the buses in Leeds, new green funding sources, a city-wide retrofitting programmes for houses, and a stop to the expansion of Leeds Bradford Airport.
The Leeds Citizens' Jury is a group of 21 people, selected through a process of random stratified selection to represent a “mini public” of Leeds. They met for nine sessions and heard from 22 commentators in order to address the question,
Their full recommendation on the airport:
Leeds Bradford Airport expansion should be stopped; specifically Leeds City Council should not approve new road-building or selling land to develop, and “Residents should block expansion and be educated about the impact on the carbon footprint”. The jury also said that flying should be discouraged by measures including a frequent-flyer tax (based on income and number of flights and location) and by advertising holidays in the UK rather than abroad.
The full post can be read on Leeds Climate.