Climate Change and Carbon Neutrality
Case reference FOI2019/01129
Published 29 October 2019
Request
I wonder if you could forward any committee papers, council resolutions and scrutiny / select committee reports or other public documents that have been published by or on behalf of your local authority. My committee is especially keen to examine reports that look into the following areas;
1. Advice on the design of a baseline inventory that will show how far your authority has already progressed and how far your council still needs to go to reach net carbon neutrality.
2. Advice and guidance on possible short term actions that you have identified that your Council can take directly, along with longer term aspirations
3. The actions you may have identified that will be required at a local authority level, including enabling actions from the Council and those required from partners, communities and individuals
4. The actions that would be required from Government to support the transition to carbon neutrality at a local authority level
5. What you see as being the bigger opportunities and what programme architecture is required to develop a council wide plan that everyone can own
6. The barriers to delivery that will need to be overcome, and the supporting changes that we all will need both locally and nationally
Response
At our Council Meeting on 23 July 2019, Council adopted two motions, the first on declaring a climate emergency, the second on seeking a Plastic-Free Guildford:
CO26 Notice of Motion - Declaring a Climate Emergency
That the Council notes:
a) That global temperatures have already risen over 1°Celsius from pre-industrial levels and that the recent 2018 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report states that we have just 12 years to act on climate change if global temperature rises are to be kept within the recommended 1.5° Celsius in order to avoid serious, damaging and likely irreversible environmental, economic and social impacts.
b) That all governments (national, regional and local) have a duty to act, and that, recognising this, a growing number of UK local authorities have already passed 'Climate Emergency' motions.
c) That Guildford Borough Council passed a motion on 4 December 2018 acknowledging that "human activity has resulted in global climate change that threatens our future" and that "in our position as a local authority, we have a crucial role to play in both leading by example and influencing the way that the residents and businesses of Guildford Borough live and work".
d) That the Council has already been proactive in identifying and delivering projects that save energy and carbon and is currently on track to meet its stated target of 43% CO2 emissions reductions by 2020, based on 2008/09 levels. However, it recognises that a greater level of ambition and urgency is required, in the light of the above.
Guildford Borough Council therefore:
- Formally declares a Climate Emergency that requires urgent action.
- Calls on the UK government to provide the powers, resources and funding support to make local, as well as national, action against climate change possible.
- Commits to working with partners across the Borough to evaluate and determine how and when Guildford Borough could become carbon neutral, with a target goal of 2030 for reaching net zero emissions.
- Commits to working towards making the Council's activities net-zero carbon by 2030.
- Commits to establishing the necessary governance structures, investment plans and officer resources in order for the Council to build a strong foundation to deliver progressively ambitious carbon reductions across our operations.
- Commits to establishing a borough-wide Climate Change Partnership consisting of representatives from all stakeholders across all sectors.
- Commits to developing, within 12 months, a clear action plan and timescale for being net-zero carbon across our Council operations, starting with a review of what has already been achieved and plans already instigated.
- Commits to delivering a joint Member-Officer training programme to enable a shared understanding of how to deliver the above, starting in September 2019.
|
CO27 |
Notice of Motion - Plastic Free Guildford |
That the Council recognises the damage plastics can cause to the environment and commits to work with our local communities to reduce the impact we have through our use of non-recyclable, single-use plastics so far as it is reasonable to do so.
This Council also agrees with the general principles of the national 'Plastic Free Communities' scheme and commits to supporting, promoting and encouraging plastic free initiatives and events within the borough.
By continuing to play our part in delivering the Surrey Environment Partnership's Single-use Plastics Strategy (2018) and 5 year action plan, we also commit to:
(a) Avoiding the use of single-use plastics ourselves where there are suitable alternatives
(b) Encouraging local businesses to do the same
(c) Engaging with and supporting the Plastic Free Guildford campaign
(d) Working with our suppliers to discourage the use of avoidable single-use plastics
(e) Supporting our communities in their efforts to reduce the use of single-use plastics
(f) Supporting the national water refill campaign which promotes the provision of facilities to enable people to refill reusable drinking water bottles
(g) Working with our partners to investigate how we can provide effective and sustainable incentives for the return of single-use plastics for recycling.
We ask the Place-Making and Innovation Executive Advisory Board to make recommendations, as appropriate, to the Executive on how to achieve each of the seven points (a) to (g) above, following detailed discussion.
Documents
This is Guildford Council's response to a freedom of information (FOI) or environmental information regulations (EIR) request.
You can browse our other responses or make a new FOI request.