Agenda item

To consider the report of the Director Net Zero and City Management.

The Service Lead Net Zero and Business presented an update on the work of the Net Zero Team, and delivery of the City Council’s Carbon Reduction Plan.  The updated Plan included a mix of measures set out in the Council’s Corporate Carbon Footprint Report produced in 2022, and actions in progress across all services to achieve a Net Zero Council. A summary of recent projects successfully delivered was also included within the report. The team were currently developing a separate methodology for the action plan to show low, medium and high priorities, which would give an emphasis of what action was needed to be undertaken as an immediate priority.

It should be acknowledged that delivery of the premise of Net Zero by 2030 for the City Council remained challenging. The Net Zero team continued to look at ways to create capacity, and they anticipated carrying out an exercise involving further research on the resources needed to deliver that for the City Council 

The report highlighted some of the major projects of the team which included:-

·      the completion of the Water Lane Smart Grid Project ;

·      two members of staff have been delivering Carbon Literacy training across the City Council. This was an ongoing project, and the Council had already achieved bronze status with further plans to work towards a silver accreditation.

·      a range of activity continued to reduce the Council’s carbon emissions with the information and data available on a dedicated page on the City Council’s web site .

·      a review of the environmental accreditation scheme, Green Accord, included  a relaunch at a Chamber of Commerce event at the beginning of April.

The Service Lead Net Zero and Business responded to the following Member’s comments and questions:-

·      she thanked the Member for comments on the attributes of an aerobic digestion plant and whilst there was no proposal to develop a facility, such as the one in the East Devon District Council area, it was not to say that such a facility could not be built in the future.

·      an officer Task and Finish Group relating to procurement has been established to see how data relating to contracts could be collected. She would ask the Net Zero Project Manager to offer a more detailed response in relation to Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions and whether the connected and partnership companies were covered.

·      the team were working to establish a costed plan for delivering Net Zero and she anticipated further detail would be available at the next meeting of the Strategic Scrutiny Committee in June.

The Portfolio Holder Climate Change welcomed the detailed report including the various projects and activity being carried out by the Net Zero team. He responded to a Member’s question on sourcing information and data and referred to the Council’s web site as referenced earlier in the meeting and a suggestion of a more visual aid, a virtual thermometer to chart the Council’s progress in this regard.

Strategic Scrutiny Committee noted the following:-

(1)    an acknowledgment that progress made but of the scale of the challenge that remained;

(2)    the Carbon Reduction Plan, which was an evolving document, to be reviewed on a six monthly basis, to monitor progress, identify change and evaluate actions needed to deliver Net Zero; and

(3)   that in order to deliver Net Zero by 2030 will require an increase in capacity, financial investment and operational resource, both internally and from government at a national level.  An investment Plan to establish recourses required had been added to the Carbon Reduction Plan.