Agenda item

To consider a report from the Director for Digital, Sustainability & Resources, a copy is attached as item 5.

Before the Committee was a report by the Director for Digital, Sustainability and Resources, copies of which had been circulated to all Members and a copy of which is attached to the signed copy of these minutes as Item 5.

On 9 July 2019, the Joint Strategic Committee (JSC) declared a ‘Climate Emergency’. As part of the declaration, Members committed to work towards becoming carbon neutral by 2030.

In December 2019, the JSC approved the adoption of the councils Carbon Neutral Plan’ which set out an ambitious pathway for Adur and Worthing Councils to become carbon neutral by 2030. The Councils had also made a voluntary commitment under the Government’s Emissions Reduction Pledge 2020 to report annually on carbon emission reductions.

The report presented the first year’s carbon emissions report. To achieve the 2030 carbon neutral target, an average reduction of 10% would need to be achieved annually. When compared to 2018/19, emissions from the Councils' buildings and vehicles reduced by more than 13% in the past year.

Due to new data becoming available, it was proposed to re-baseline the council's carbon emissions to ensure greater accuracy in the coming years

An outline of future carbon reduction projects was also presented (Section 6).

A Member sought clarification regarding plans to retrofit Council housing heating systems and requiring developers to provide electric heating and energy storage and the provision of a solar farm as outlined in 6.2.2 of the report. Officers confirmed that a report would be brought forward (to the December JSC meeting) regarding solar opportunities on Council owned buildings and land. Both Councils were in the process of reviewing and refreshing their Local Plans which informed the approach to development and seeks to reflect the formative Environment Bill which looks towards net biodiversity gain. The Worthing Local Plan, which will be the first to be refreshed, would look to adopt the UN Sustainability Goals as a foundation stone to the Council’s approach. It was also noted that in regards to Social Housing, Officers form the Carbon Reduction Team were working with colleagues in Adur Homes to understand the data currently available and have recently submitted a bid to the Greater South East Energy Hub to work with them and external consultants to take a holistic view of the energy performance of Adur’s housing stock. If the bid is successful, it will develop a plan which the Council can build into the Capital Investment Programme going forward, with a minimum aim for that is for all social housing properties under the Adur Homes banner to be of an EPC C by 2030 but Officers would look to go beyond that where possible. 

Members welcomed the report, noting the 13.85% reduction in emissions in 2019/20 and sought clarity in relation to the reductions forecast for 2020/21 and the effect of lockdown on emissions during this period. Officers advised that some of the big projects would be implemented and start to deliver benefits past the current year which meant the Councils performance would be rather varied over the next couple of years. It was likely that the Councils would see an impact related to the reduced use of buildings during Covid although these hadn’t been factored into the comments at this stage. The Councils would need to wait and see what the data revealed in this regard. Over 80% of the Councils vehicle emissions came from refuse vehicles which were some of the older vehicles in the fleet. Officers agreed to provide more information on age and performance of vehicles after the meeting. It was noted that Shoreham Port were considering the installation of a Hydrogen Pump where Hydrogen Fuel Cell vehicles would be able to refuel. 

The recommendations in the report were proposed by Councillor Daniel Humphreys, seconded by Councillor Neil Parkin and were unanimously supported by the Committee. 

Decision: 

The Joint Strategic Committee

1.     noted the Councils' current carbon emissions and emerging carbon reduction work programme for 2020/21 and 2021/22 which aimed to deliver meaningful carbon reductions in the years ahead;

2.     approved the publication of the carbon emissions report on the council website; and

3.     approved the submission of these figures to the government department of Business Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) under the voluntary Emissions Reduction Pledge 2020.

Call In:

The call-in deadline for this decision will be 5.00pm on 13 November 2020.