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Issue - meetings

Carbon Action Plan

 

 

Meeting: 06/03/2024 - Executive (Item 168)

168 Carbon Action Plan pdf icon PDF 73 KB

Purpose:

To present the West Oxfordshire District Council Carbon Action Plan, which is proposed to be adopted and resourced by the Council from April 2024.

 

Recommendation:

That the Executive Resolves to:

  1. Approve the West Oxfordshire District Council Carbon Action Plan to deliver on the Council’s commitment to become carbon neutral by 2030.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Councillor Andrew Prosser, Executive Member for Climate Change, introduced the report, which presented the West Oxfordshire District Council Carbon Action Plan proposed to be adopted and resourced by the Council from April 2024.

 

The Executive Member stated that the Executive had received a recommendation from the Overview and Scrutiny Committee, which requested that Carbon training be provided to Members, to help inform decision making and communication on carbon reduction.

 

The Executive Member highlighted that, following discussions with councillors, climate teams, monitoring officers and a Climate Literacy Experience Workshop with 20 other Local Authorities within the Net Zero Living Programme, a proposal for a blended approach to Councillor engagement and training on carbon and climate was being produced for consideration by the Publica Councils.

 

Councillor Andrew Prosser proposed that the Executive agree to the recommendation as listed on the report, with an additional recommendation agreed to by the Executive, whereby training on carbon and climate literacy for Members would take place, to inform decision making and communication on carbon reduction.

 

This was seconded by Councillor Lidia Arciszewska, was put to a vote, and was unanimously agreed by the Executive.

 

The Executive Resolved to:

  1. Approve the West Oxfordshire District Council Carbon Action Plan to deliver on the Council’s commitment to become carbon neutral by 2030;
  2. Agree that member training on carbon and climate literacy will take place to inform decision making and communication on carbon reduction.

Meeting: 29/02/2024 - Overview and Scrutiny Committee (Item 51)

51 Carbon Action Plan pdf icon PDF 73 KB

Purpose:

To present the West Oxfordshire District Council Carbon Action Plan, which is proposed to be adopted and resourced by the Council from April 2024.

 

Recommendation:

That the Committee scrutinises the Carbon Action Plan and agrees any recommendations it wishes to submit to the Council’s Executive.

 

Invited:

Councillor Andrew Prosser, Executive Member for Climate Change

Hannah Kenyon, Climate Change Manager

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Climate Change Manager provided a copy of the Carbon Action Plan attached to the agenda. Lily Paulson, the Climate Change Officer was introduced and thanked for all her hard work on the project.

The report explained that West Oxfordshire District Council (the Council) declared a climate and ecological emergency in 2019, making its pledge to become a carbon neutral Council by 2030. A pledge to be carbon neutral meant that the Council needed to balance the carbon dioxide emissions produced as a result of its everyday activities with the amount of carbon dioxide emissions that was removed from the atmosphere. Therefore, the first objective was to minimise the amount of carbon dioxide emissions being released because of Council activities bringing these as close to zero as possible. Any remaining ‘residual’ emissions would then need to be offset through verified means.

While the Carbon Action Plan focused on reducing emissions from Council activities, buildings and services, the Council was also committed to facilitating the reduction of wider district emissions through the delivery of its Climate Change Strategy 2021-25.

The document provided an updated version of the Climate Action Plan, covering actions to be undertaken between 2024 and 2030 to reach the carbon neutral target.

The plan only focused on the Council’s internal emissions and set out the pathway and actions required to meet the 2030 targets.

A range of actions were required to meet these targets and currently the Council was not on course to reach the 2030 targets. The actions that were required in certain areas, the co-benefits, the financial implications, importance for external funding and how monitoring and reporting would be undertaken was explained.

Various questions and points of clarification were raised with Officers providing answers and points of clarification as follows:

  • It would be difficult to achieve Carbon neutrality without funding or opportunities to secure funding.
  • Grey Fleet meant vehicles that employees own and use for business purposes (which could include petrol, diesel, electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles).
  • The waste fleet fell under “scope one” emissions within the Carbon Action Plan.
  • Leased assets were commercially let and not delivering services for the Council.
  • The Old Port House had been reviewed and was the first project; which proved important for social impact and the Asset Management Team would look at retrofitting the Council held buildings within a timeframe of the next eighteen months.
  • The cycle to work scheme was being reviewed in the Active Travel Plan and what could be done to facilitate the switch to staff not using their vehicles was being examined. Information on how many staff use this scheme would be provided in due course.
  • Leisure centres were key projects for decarbonisation and the prices were highly inflated in the market due to not many suppliers quoting which had caused viability issues. Grant funding was being looked at.
  • There had been a switch to Green energy suppliers and there was a requirement for an Energy Manager to oversee this.
  • The Climate Team were ensuring continued  ...  view the full minutes text for item 51

 

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