Environmental activists are calling on Croydon Council to declare a climate emergency.

Extinction Rebellion Croydon, part of the larger activist movement which shut down central London for a week in April, have launched a petition urging the Council to review its emission reduction plans in order to meet their 2025 zero carbon target.

Almost 750 people have already signed the petition, which will be debated at a full council meeting should it reach 2000 signatures.

A spokesperson for Extinction Rebellion Croydon said: "We the undersigned petition Croydon Council to declare a Climate Emergency and review the council’s current carbon reduction plans to establish the actions needed to be compatible with 1.5 degrees warming and to bring the timescale forward from 2050 to 2025.

"Further we ask the council to call on government and the Mayor of London to give Croydon Council the powers and funding to enable Croydon Council to become carbon neutral by 2025.

"The IPCC’s Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5°C, published in October 2018, describes the enormous harm that a 2°C rise is likely to cause compared with a 1.5°C rise, and confirms that limiting Global Warming to 1.5°C may still be possible with ambitious action from national and sub-national authorities and others."

The UK Government declared a climate emergency last month, following weeks of protests by environmental activists, committing to cut greenhouse gas emissions to zero by 2050.

Extinction rebellion say this is not enough, and that the reduction must be achieved by 2025 to properly limit rising temperatures.

A number of Councils, including Lewisham and Greenwich, have already declared an emergency.

A Croydon Council spokesman said: “Any borough-wide petition that receives more than 2,000 signatures from residents in the borough can be debated at full council.

“We are working hard to try and make Croydon London’s greenest borough. This includes introducing sustainable ways to travel including dockless e-bikes, electric vehicle charging points and improving cycling infrastructure across the borough.

“We are organising a sustainability summit to help draw together the good work across the borough and inspire residents, businesses and our young people to help lead the borough’s green revolution and we will make our next Local Plan the greenest ever, to ensure our commitment to sustainability underpins all areas of living, working, visiting and travelling in our borough.”

To view the petition, visit: https://www.change.org/p/london-borough-of-croydon-council-croydon-council-to-declare-a-climate-emergency