Agenda item

To receive and consider report 112/07 of the Strategic Director and Monitoring Officer. 

Introduction and Report Summary

The Executive will be aware that the production of a Climate Change Strategy and associated action plan was a Service priority for the Council this year.

This report introduces the Climate Change Strategy for the Council and discusses two important decision points, these being:

o          The scope of the Council’s approach to climate change

o          The methodology that the Council could use to deliver the Strategy

The Strategy is attached at appendix A of this report.

The contact officers for this report are Paul Staines, Deputy Director (Housing and Community Safety), telephone 01235 547621, e-mail address paul.staines@whitehorsedc.co.uk and Mark Saunders, Principal Energy Officer, telephone 01235 547603, e-mail address mark.saunders@whitehorsedc.gov.uk.

Recommendations

(a)               The Executive approve the Climate Change Strategy and Action Plan attached as an appendix to this report;

(b)               The Executive approve the adoption of a Council-wide approach to addressing the issue of climate change; and

(c)               The Executive agree, as part of its budget considerations for 2008-9, to consider the resource implications of the Action Plan. 

(Time: 3.22pm to 3.31pm)

The Executive received and considered report 112/07 of the Strategic Director and Monitoring Officer which proposed the adoption of a climate change strategy.  Members recalled that the production of a strategy and associated action plan was a Service priority for the Council this year.  The report introduced the strategy and discussed two important decision points:

·        The scope of the Council’s approach to climate change

·        The methodology that the Council could use to deliver the strategy

Recent developments in national and regional policy were placing increasing significance on climate change.  To date, the Council had focused its climate change efforts on energy saving in the domestic sector under the obligations of the Home Energy Conservation Act 1996.  However, in May of 2007 the Council signed the Nottingham Declaration on Climate Change.  In signing the declaration, the Council acknowledged that it needed to address this issue in two ways, these being:

·        How its own operations contributed towards carbon emissions

·        How it could, in its capacity as community leader and place shaper, address the issue within the wider community of the Vale

It was suggested that the best approach was to focus on the Council’s own operations in the first instance before leading on a District-wide effort to reduce emissions and adapt to climate change.  As a consequence, the strategy, at this stage, related only to Council operations that were either affected by climate change or contributed to it.  

The process of developing the strategy had begun in May 2007, after the Council signed the Nottingham Declaration.  The Strategic Review Committee had endorsed a corporate approach to tackling climate change and made two specific resolutions:

·        That the contract specification for all Council services, including those to be outsourced, be drafted so that climate change issues were given due consideration in the delivery of those services

·        That in respect of the key corporate recommendations of the review report the Council should have regard to best practice through discussions with its benchmarking partners and Beacon Councils in developing a Climate Change Strategy

Subsequent to this resolution, the Strategy was refined to take account of the Committee’s views and the findings of the scoping study.  The Strategy now focused upon the carbon footprint of the Council’s own operations and functions.

It was suggested that the Council had a choice of two methodologies that the implementation of the Strategy could take by either adopting an ad-hoc approach built around a few key actions or adopting a strategic Council-wide approach.  The officers recommended the second approach as it would result in a higher profile for the Council in an area of public concern, would ensure better environmental performance across many areas of the Council such as the Green Travel Plan, planning policy and sustainable procurement, and would deliver greater emissions reductions and cost savings in the long term.

The Executive noted that the Council’s duties towards climate change were limited:

·        The Home Energy Conservation Act: required achievement of an annual 2% reduction in CO² emissions

·        The Climate Change and Sustainable Energy Act 2006 gave the Council a general duty to have regard to climate change issues in the exercise of its functions

·        The Council was not required to address climate change any further

It was noted that the Council could therefore opt to not adopt the Strategy, instead asking officers to exercise regard to climate change issues within existing service priorities and budgets.  Alternatively, the Council could adopt the Strategy, appropriately resourced, as a response to the issue of climate change. 

The Executive considered the draft Strategy to be an appropriate and proportionate response to the issue of climate change that met the Council’s service commitments and would ensure that the issue, should it be enshrined as a target in the Oxfordshire Local Area Agreement, was a commitment that the Council could meet. 

It was considered that the strategy should follow a corporate approach to climate change.  Members recognised that there would be the resource implications and that these would have to compete with others in the 2008/09 budget deliberations. 

Members highlighted recycling and composting schemes the Council had previously undertaken and the management of Besselsleigh Wood, all contributory factors in tackling climate change. 

It was suggested that consideration should be given to the membership of the Climate Change Project Board to monitor implementation of the strategy.  It was requested that a recommendation on this was made to the next meeting of the Executive on 1 February 2008.  Members welcomed the strategy and thanked the officers for their report. 

RESOLVED  (by seven votes to nil)

(a)               that the Climate Change Strategy and Action Plan, appended to report 112/07, be approved;

(b)               that the adoption of a Council-wide approach to addressing the issue of climate change be approved;

(c)               that the Executive agrees, as part of its budget considerations for 2008-09, to consider the resource implications of the Action Plan; and

(d)               that consideration be given to the membership of the Climate Change Project Board to monitor implementation of the strategy and a recommendation be made to the next meeting of the Executive on 1 February 2008.