With temperature soaring across Europe this week climate change is at the forefront of everyone’s minds.

So it seems like the Sustainable Croydon conference fell at the right time.

The event took place at Boxpark today (Thursday, June 27) with the leader of Croydon Council Tony Newman announcing that the council will declare a climate change emergency.

This is something that has already been done by 85 local councils around the country with more lined up.

But what does it actually mean?

As well as calling for the emergency, which will be made official by the council’s cabinet in the coming months, the council announced other initiatives which will hopefully lead to a greener future for the borough.

Speaking after the conference, Councillor Stuart Collins, cabinet member for clean green Croydon, said the council will be ‘backing our bees’.

To encourage the conservation of bees, which are vital for the environment, by planting wildflowers across the borough .

Mr Collins said: “A three year programme of planting wildflowers will start this autumn.

“On all out grass verges there will be nice and colourful bee friendly flowers.

“We won’t be cutting them so often. That allows all the new plants we’ve planted to grow.”

He added that to improve sustainability the council will also be encouraging  businesses to eliminate single use plastics, and that he has been working with the environmentally friendly group, the Crystal Palace Transition Town.

This group backs a shop where you can refill household products such as laundry detergent, washing up liquid, shampoo and cleaning products.

There is also a zero packaging shop to buy food including grains nuts and dried goods where you take your own pot along to collect them.

Finally there is a ‘Library of Things’ based at Upper Norwood Library where you can rent larger or more expensive items, like lawnmowers or tents.

Mr Collins added: “We are working with ideas from the Transition Town and will be encouraging shops to have a refillable machine for washing liquid.

“And we will be encouraging supermarkets to have a deposit scheme, where you can take your bottles and containers back and get a larger deposit back at the end.”

But closing the event, Councillor Alison Butler, said there is still a long way to go before Croydon becomes ‘totally environmentally friendly’.

“It is good to recognise that Croydon can’t do this alone,” she said..