Issue - meetings

To scrutinise the Climate and Nature Emergency Plan: Annual Report 2023/24 as part of the Cyngor Gwynedd Plan 2023-28 – A Green Gwynedd.

Resolved:

1.    To accept the report, noting the observations made during the discussion.

2.    To recommend that more information should be included in the Annual Report about what is responsible for the carbon emissions percentages.

3.    That the committee scrutinises the conclusions of the review of the Climate and Nature Emergency Plan prior to being considered by the Cabinet.

4.    To request that the Council Leader lobbies the Welsh Government in the context of reviewing the methodology of measuring carbon emissions that derive from procurement processes.

The report was presented by the Leader of the Council, the Chief Executive and Climate Change Programme Manager. ⁠

Members were reminded that a Climate and Nature Emergency Plan was adopted by Cabinet on 8 March 2022 with the ambition that 'Cyngor Gwynedd will be carbon net zero and ecologically positive by 2030'. It was added that the issue of responding to a climate change crisis was one of the priorities of 'Improving the Council' within the 2023-28 Cyngor Gwynedd Plan.

It was explained that the Council's carbon emissions had been reduced by 16% compared to the baseline established in 2019/20, including procurement. It was recognised that carbon emissions from procurement processes presented a challenge to achieving this ambition as it was purely expenditure-based and did not take into account the locations where the Council purchased goods. It was noted that this painted a misleading picture of the true impact of climate expenditure.

It was noted that £3million had been earmarked for the creation of a Climate Plan fund through the one-time revenue bid process. An update was provided that £792,015 remained in this fund at the end of December 2024 as £2,207,984 had been spent or earmarked for expenditure. It was explained that this expenditure included £500,000 on electric car charging points and £2.1million on a low carbon heating scheme.

It was explained that issues relevant to the Plan were developing rapidly and that it was timely to consider reviewing the Plan. Members were encouraged to share any appropriate ideas and developments to consider them when reviewing the Plan.

During the discussion, the following observations were made: - 

Reference was made to the proposed review of the Plan. It was proposed and seconded that conclusions from the Plan review be submitted to this Committee when timely so that the Committee could provide input before submitting the review to the Cabinet.

It was asked whether the Board was effectively realising the needs of the objectives of the Plan, or whether other options need to be considered to ensure that the ambition was addressed. The Chief Executive noted that the review of this Plan would assess whether the projects that are in place are sufficient to meet the ambition, or whether new plans need to be developed. It was added that other aspects of the Plan would be assessed to consider if it was fit for purpose, to save money and protect services. It was also confirmed that consideration would be given to establish if the Board was the best vehicle to drive the Plan forward or if there was a need to re-consider the structure.

It was noted that investing in schemes to reduce carbon emissions had saved the Council a great deal of money. The Council was encouraged to continue to invest in these schemes in the future.

It was asked how this Committee or Elected Members could help lobby the Government in relation to the challenges of the Procurement processes to call for a change to how procurement was  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7