The Cabinet Member with the Economy Portfolio introduced the report of the Director of Economic Growth and Neighbourhood Services (previously circulated) requesting that consideration be given to the Climate Change Strategy (also previously circulated) and the approach to staff and Member training.
The submitted report stated that Climate Change Strategy detailed the Council’s approach to achieving the carbon neutral council target adopted in the motion passed by Full Council in July 2019 (Minute 19/Jul/19 refers); 2010/11 had been used as the baseline year, allowing the Council to demonstrate how it had been addressing its energy use and carbon emissions for some time; for the financial year 2018/19, the carbon footprint had reduced to 8197 tonnes CO2e; and that a zero carbon electricity tariff had been chosen that reduced the Council’s carbon footprint from 8197 tonnes to 5011 tonnes CO2e.
Particular references were made to the four principles contained within the Strategy which underpinned the proposed actions namely reducing overall energy consumption; reducing demand for fossil fuel based energy; contributing to a greener grid; and sequester carbon.
It was reported that an e-learning training module had been developed for staff and Members; quarterly update reports would be produced along with an annual report outlining progress made against the net zero target; lead officers would be tasked with producing plans for their own departments, which would form part of the overall Council action plan; and that the action plan would likely be a rolling three to five year plan, which would be reviewed every three years, to take advantage of new technologies, examples of good practice and any changes in government policy.
Discussion ensued on the ambition to be carbon neutral by 2050; the work of the Climate Change Cross Party Working Group; the need to obtain robust data on areas that are currently ‘out of scope’ of the strategy; and the importance of new builds being environmentally and energy efficient.
RESOLVED - (a) That the Climate Change Strategy, as appended to the submitted report, be adopted.
(b) That climate change training be included in compulsory training modules.
REASON - As with increasing public pressure to take action on climate change, the Council runs the risk of significant damage to its reputation if it does not deliver on its stated commitment to dealing with its contribution to climate change.