Agenda item

The Climate and Nature Emergency Plan considered and approved: Cyngor Gwynedd Annual Report 2022/23.

The report was submitted by Cllr Dyfrig Siencyn.     

DECISION 

The Climate and Nature Emergency Plan: Cyngor Gwynedd Annual Report 2022/23, was considered and approved. 

DISCUSSION 

Members were reminded that the Climate and Nature Emergency Plan had been adopted by the Council on 8 March 2023 following a Cabinet meeting.  

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 emphasised that the Council had been working on measures to reduce carbon emissions for over 10 years and had succeeded to reduce the total carbon emissions by 43%. It was detailed that the Council had succeeded to do this by implementing in each area, including streetlights that has reduced 76% of the related carbon emissions, and changes to the fleet, reducing related carbon emissions by 23%. 

It was explained that the Council's changes contributed towards the climate change emergency and contributed to the Council's aim to be net-zero carbon and ecologically positive by 2030. It was also noted that these changes led to the Council's financial savings. It was elaborated 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 need to be made as a result of the Council's current financial situation unless the work on the climate change and nature emergency had not been delivered, because there would be a need to meet £4.3million in additional costs. 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. 

Reference was made to a variety of projects within the plan's seven main workstreams namely: Buildings and energy, moving and transportation, waste, governance, scrutiny, land use and ecology. Attention was given to a solar panel project that was already underway with £2.8 million invested in solar panels to put on the Council's offices to save money in the future. It was also explained that the Council's fleet would be upgraded in the future to be electric vehicles in order to reduce the carbon emissions that the current vehicles released. 

Concern was expressed regarding the method of calculating carbon emissions nationally. It was explained that buying local goods was calculated in the same way as buying goods from across the country, because the system focused on expenditure, despite the fact that there were major differences in the true carbon emissions. It was noted that this could impact the local economy in areas as there was no encouragement to buy locally. There was concern that it would not be possible to reach targets of becoming carbon neutral by 2030 if this calculating method would not be amended. It was confirmed that work was being done nationally to rectify this mistake to help local members to achieve their goal. 

Thanks was given to the Communities Scrutiny Committee for their observations on the annual report, which had been taken into their consideration and implemented.