Agenda item

Report of Councillor Petty (attached)

As announced by the Chairman at the start of the meeting, this agenda item was brought forward.

Councillor Petty presented the report, highlighting the progress made to date in tackling the climate emergency and embedding climate action across the whole organisation.  She referred to the ongoing challenges of monitoring policy changes and climate actions against greenhouse gas emissions, and warned that while emissions continued to decrease, this was not at a fast enough rate.  43% of emissions were due to transport and current progress would not achieve carbon neutrality by 2050.  She referred to the work being undertaken with the West of England Combined Authority (WECA) and their updated Climate and Nature Emergency Strategy and Action Plan, and to the findings of the West of England Transport Decarbonisation Study.  It was clear that current measures would not achieve the desired results and that further investment was required to meet the challenges and bring about the behavioural change required. 

Councillor Petty proposed an additional recommendation to those set out in the report, proposing that she, as Executive Member, and the Leader write to Government raising the council’s concerns on the lack of progress in meeting climate change targets.  This amendment was seconded by Councillor Tonkin.

Members thanked the Executive Member and officers for the work undertaken to date, recognising the huge challenges and the need for behavioural change in order to meet emission targets.  Members welcomed the recent capital funding for bus services as a sign of the Government’s recognition of the need for behavioural change, but stressed the need for additional resources to deliver further change to address the wider challenges.  Members expressed support for the proposed letter and proposed wider signatories to the letter, including the Executive Member for Children and Young People and the Council’s Youth Champions.

In discussing the report and action plan the following key points were raised: members expressed support for the proposal to declare North Somerset a Frack Free Zone to discourage the exploration and production of shale gas; the need to explore all renewable energy options was supported; the need to achieve the right tone in any messaging, recognising the steps taken by government to date and the importance of encouraging partnership working and wider participation with local communities in order to address the climate challenges; a recognition of the difficulties both locally and globally in measuring the impact of actions taken to reduce emissions, and of the importance of pushing forward with actions to measure outputs and value added, with a clear recognition of the co-benefits of carbon reduction such as improvements in wellbeing; members welcomed the work around EV charging points and highlighted the need for any strategy to address the requirements in certain rural areas where charging from home may not be an option; with reference to the level of imported gas from Russia, it was noted that some work had been undertaken around supply chains for oil and gas, and levels in North Somerset were significantly lower than in some neighbouring authorities.

On the Motion of Councillor Petty, seconded by Councillor Tonkin, it was

Resolved: 

(1)  that the progress with specific initiatives within the Climate Emergency

Strategy and Action Plan be noted:

(2) that the proposal for an update to the Climate Emergency and Action Plan

update and comments from members be noted; and

(3) that the Executive Member for Climate Emergency and Engagement and the Leader write to Government raising concerns on the lack of progress with meeting climate change targets, the letter to be signed by other councillors as appropriate.