Editor,

The latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), released last week, points out with remarkable clarity the desperate situation the planet and its inhabitants are in thanks to fossil fuel emissions. We need to make “ rapid, deep and immediate cuts” in carbon emissions this decade to have any hope of remaining below a 1.5 degree temperature rise. The director general of the UN says “Some government and business leaders are saying one thing - but doing another.

Simply put, they are lying. And the results will be catastrophic” It couldn’t be clearer than that.The Welsh government announced a climate and biodiversity emergency in April 2019. Here in Ceredigion, our Council pre-dated that by reluctantly declaring a climate emergency in March. But still this local authority is facilitating and promoting the Rali Bae Ceredigion – due to take place in September this year. If any consideration at all was given to its carbon footprint it would never go ahead. It was estimated that the 2019 rally – consisting of 120 cars and covering 44 miles - was responsible for something like 16 tons of carbon dioxide being pumped into the atmosphere. Many miles of public roads and 58 public rights of way were closed for a day and a half.

This year’s rally is being organised behind closed doors with the full co-operation of Ceredigion Council. Any talk of a “consultation” is a sham. But details are slowly beginning to seep out into the public domain.It is now clear that 150 cars will be involved and roads and footpaths will be closed for 54 hours. What the actual mileage will be we do not yet know but rally organizers make it quite clear that they want to expand the event year on year, to include more cars, more stages, and more mileage. And more emissions…The majority of the population seems to be in denial about the dangers posed by global warming. Yet the future of their children, their grandchildren, the planet and its wildlife are all threatened.

There seems to be a general perception that reducing carbon emissions is something that other people need to do. We might expect rally drivers to want to race their cars around the countryside because that is what they do for “fun”. But those in positions of responsibility, like our Local Authority, really should know better. They have the power to make sure the rally cannot take place.

What is it about the relationship between carbon emissions and the climate emergency that the Chief Executive doesn’t understand?

Jeremy Moore, Penrhyncoch