Issue - meetings

Decision

RESOLVED

To recommend to Full Council:

• To adopt the revisions to the Environmental Charter
• To adopt the Decarbonisation Strategy and associated action plan.

Reasons for the decision:

documentation and a clear direction to meet its climate goals in support of the declaration of a climate emergency.

To support the corporate plan theme: Continue our journey to Net Zero and associated objectives

To meet the audit recommendations

The Chair invited Cllr Varley, Portfolio Holder for Climate Change & Net Zero, to introduce this item. Cllr Varley began by thanking the Climate & Environmental Policy Manager for all her hard work in preparing the documents. He explained that The Environmental Charter had been developed to provide context to the Council’s declaration of a Climate Emergency in 2019 and it included the Council’s 2030 and 2045 Net Zero targets. Subsequently, the Council’s Net Zero strategy and action plan were adopted in 2022 and now required a refresh to align with the new corporate plan and revised central government targets and policy.  In addition, many of the actions have been completed or superseded.  The need for a new strategy and action plan was confirmed by a recent internal audit.  The Net Zero strategy had been renamed to the decarbonisation strategy to fit with the name and aims of the decarbonisation board.  The separation of the action plan to allow frequent review and updates was also a recommendation of the recent audit. In conclusion, he said that each year the Council calculated its Carbon Footprint using the carbon accounting tool developed by the LGA.  The resulting report presented a breakdown of the calculation and the projects and changes that the Council had made during the year which had affected the footprint both positively and negatively. It helped to define the direction of future Council services and the actions needed to mitigate emissions to meet Net Zero targets. He added that the Council was on an ambitious journey and it was important to stay focused and on track.

The report would go to Overview and Scrutiny Committee for consideration and then Full Council for approval.

Cllr N Dixon referred to page 56, section 5.1 of the report and asked for clarification about the resource implications that were mentioned. He specifically asked for further information on what had already been allocated and committed but not yet spent. Cllr Varley said that he would provide a written response.

It was proposed by Cllr A Varley, seconded by Cllr C Ringer and

RESOLVED

To recommend to Full Council:

• To adopt the revisions to the Environmental Charter
• To adopt the Decarbonisation Strategy and associated action plan.

Reasons for the decision:

documentation and a clear direction to meet its climate goals in support of the declaration of a climate emergency.

To support the corporate plan theme: Continue our journey to Net Zero and associated objectives

To meet the audit recommendations