A bid to make “tackling the climate emergency” a central part of the borough’s recovery from the coronavirus pandemic has been rejected.

Labour’s call for a “more integrated and comprehensive approach to tackling the climate emergency in council business planning and regeneration” was opposed by the Conservatives, who claimed it should not be one of the council’s immediate priorities.

It came during a meeting of Barnet Council’s urgency committee on Monday (April 27), which took place online, with councillors dialling in from their homes due to the coronavirus lockdown.

Labour called for a “brief report” on post-pandemic recovery planning that would include tackling the climate emergency, alongside other measures such as maintaining support for community and voluntary organisations and tackling social isolation.

Declaring a climate emergency involves recognising the threat posed by climate change and proposing measures to tackle it, such as setting carbon reduction targets.

Labour leader Cllr Barry Rawlings (Coppetts) told the meeting: “I wanted to emphasise we need to think about the local economy and high street, and how we build the climate emergency into the planning and regeneration to ensure it is not forgotten.”

But deputy council leader Cllr David Longstaff (Conservative, High Barnet) said he did not see how tackling the climate emergency as part of regeneration could be included in a “brief report”.

He added that council teams were already focusing on getting businesses and the local economy up and running.

“I don’t understand why there is something in there about climate emergency. I don’t see how it is at all relevant to this pandemic,” he added.

Council leader Cllr Dan Thomas (Conservative, Finchley Church End) said many of Labour’s suggestions were helpful but “much of the recovery will be covered by current policies” and Government guidance is focused on the “here and now”.

He said he did not think a brief report would be “sufficient or possible” given the current pressure on council resources and asked for the climate change suggestion to be dropped.

Cllr Rawlings claimed the report was about “democratic accountability” to ensure councillors are aware of what is being done, and he would not accept removing the point about the climate emergency.

He said: “Any authority worth its salt would be thinking about the climate emergency, which could have a devastating impact – probably as big as Covid-19 – and it should be an integral part of what we do.”

But Cllr Thomas said: “Any council worth its salt right now is dealing with Covid-19 here and now and not looking at writing reports about climate change at this present time.”

He said residents had not been writing to him about the climate emergency during the past month and accused Labour of being “entirely out of touch”.

A dispute over Barnet’s response to climate change broke out between Labour and the Conservatives last year.

At a full council meeting in July, Labour called on the council to declare a climate emergency and make Barnet a carbon neutral borough by 2030.

The Conservatives changed the motion to recognise the Government’s declaration of a climate emergency, remove the carbon neutral target and call on the Mayor of London to help cut emissions.