Issue - meetings

Update on progress made since adoption of the Climate and Nature Emergency Plan in March 2022.

1.    To accept the report and to recommend:

(i)      That information about 'Active Travel' should be added under Section 3 of the Report: 'Section 6, Environment (Wales) Act 2016'.

(ii)     Consideration should be given to adapting the format of how information is displayed under the 'What did we promise to do in 2022/23?' and 'What we did' titles in Sections 5-11 of the Report for clarity to the reader.

2.    Recommend to the Cabinet that the staffing resource should be considered to achieve the vision of the Climate and Nature Emergency Plan.

The report was submitted by the Chief Executive. ⁠Attention was drawn briefly to the following main points: 

Members were reminded that the Climate and Nature Emergency Plan was one of the priorities within the Council Plan, with a Board established to support it.

Attention was drawn to the fact that the plan included two steps. It was detailed that the first phase was to implement the Council's projects to reduce the use of energy and reduce the Council's carbon emissions and the second phase would be to look at the wider impact on the county, considering how the Council could help communities and how the county could respond to the impact of climate change.

It was explained that dealing with the climate and nature was part of the Council's work since 2005/06 and it was noted that a huge success could be seen by now. ⁠It was detailed that there were 51% less carbon emissions in the Construction field between 2005/06 and 2019 and 23% carbon emissions in the Fleet field within the same period. It was reported that the Council had managed to reduce the Council's carbon emissions by 43% within this period.

It was noted that the Council saw financial benefits when tackling the climate and nature emergency, saving around £15 million since 2010. It was emphasised that this meant that more cuts would have needed to be made as a result of the Council's current financial situation if the work on the climate change and nature emergency had not been delivered. It was recognised that new considerations needed to be considered by now, such as challenges in the scrutiny field and the fact that more of the council's workforce worked from home.

Concern was expressed regarding the method of calculating carbon emissions deriving from procurement nationally. It was explained that buying local goods was calculated in the same way as buying goods from the continent, even though there were major differences in the actual carbon emissions. It was noted that this could impact the local economy in areas as there was no encouragement to buy locally. It was explained that procurement had been refined over the past two years leading to a reduction in the Council's carbon emissions. It was noted that the consistent message conveyed to the Welsh Government was that the method of calculating in the procurement field wasn't an accurate reflection of the real situation. There was concern that it would not be possible to reach targets to become carbon neutral by 2030 if this method of calculation was not amended.

It was confirmed that the Council was ready to look at step two of the Plan, which was to look at plans for the future. It was mentioned that the first step of the plan was to reduce carbon emissions, and therefore long-term plans needed to be secured for these emission figures to remain low. It was explained that these developments were being implemented within the following main themes:

·       Construction and Energy  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5