Agenda item

Helen Palmer asked the Executive Member for Resident Services, Communications and Emissions the following question:

 

Question

Two years ago, Wokingham District Council voted unanimously to declare a climate emergency.  It was a momentous occasion. 

 

May I thank everyone involved in this.  Cutting greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2030 in Wokingham is a formidable task; however, the Council has committed to it.

 

Next, I would like to quote from the Report and Recommendations of the Council’s Overview and Scrutiny Management Committee’s Climate Emergency Task and Finish Group of June 2021:

 

“In light of the Government’s target of achieving Net Zero by 2050, we sought views on the feasibility of the Council’s 2030 target.  It was suggested that achieving net zero by 2030 was the safest way to restrict global warming to the Paris target of 1.5 degrees.  However, 2030 was only eight years away and the task facing us was enormous.  Net zero by 2030 was technically feasible but was unlikely to be politically or financially feasible.  Instead, we should focus on making significant progress by the mid-2030s.”

 

My question is; Can the Council assure me of its commitment to achieving net zero by 2030?  “Significant progress by the mid 2030's” is not specific enough, not soon enough and quite simply not good enough.

Minutes:

 

Question

Two years ago, Wokingham District Council voted unanimously to declare a climate emergency.  It was a momentous occasion. 

 

May I thank everyone involved in this.  Cutting greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2030 in Wokingham is a formidable task; however, the Council has committed to it.

 

Next, I would like to quote from the Report and Recommendations of the Council’s Overview and Scrutiny Management Committee’s Climate Emergency Task and Finish Group of June 2021:

 

“In light of the Government’s target of achieving Net Zero by 2050, we sought views on the feasibility of the Council’s 2030 target.  It was suggested that achieving net zero by 2030 was the safest way to restrict global warming to the Paris target of 1.5 degrees.  However, 2030 was only eight years away and the task facing us was enormous.  Net zero by 2030 was technically feasible but was unlikely to be politically or financially feasible.  Instead, we should focus on making significant progress by the mid-2030s.”

 

My question is; Can the Council assure me of its commitment to achieving net zero by 2030?  “Significant progress by the mid 2030's” is not specific enough, not soon enough and quite simply not good enough.

 

Answer

Thank you for your question.  There are two things that I would say in response to your question.  The first is that the Climate Emergency Task and Finish Group report presents the recommendations made following scrutiny of the Climate Emergency Action Plan.  The Group acts as a critical friend to the Council, its Officers and myself, and the Council can choose to accept, or not their recommendations.  The report you refer to is the recommendations of that group and not necessarily Council policy. 

 

The second thing to say is that Wokingham Borough Council made a commitment to play as full a role as possible – leading by example as well as by exhortation – in achieving a carbon-neutral Wokingham Borough by 2030.  The Council stands by this and is taking this commitment through developing a clear and ambitious Climate Emergency Action Plan that sets the Borough well on the path towards net-zero.  The action plan has included a number of major commitments such as the delivery of solar farms, planting 250,000 trees and developing a net-zero local plan, amongst many others.

 

Since the Council's declaration to tackle the climate emergency, the extensive planning and strategy development phases of the Climate Emergency Action Plan have been undertaken and we are already starting to see the results of that work with the first solar farm at the planning application stage and Dinton Activity Centre nearing completion as a new net-zero Council development.

 

The Council’s own actions along with its statutory powers and responsibilities are important levers to reduce emissions in the Borough but these powers are limited, and we need to look at the wider picture where our role as a community leader and influencer will be equally if not more critical.  To reach net-zero across the suite of sectors and activities that we cannot directly control will require partnerships and collaboration as a vital ingredient for success. 

 

More than half of the emission cuts needed rely on people and businesses taking up low-carbon solutions - decisions that are made at a local and individual level.  Many of these decisions can be positively influenced by having supporting infrastructure and systems in place.

 

Supplementary Question:

I wondered how you were planning to get people on board with these significant changes in our habits and behaviour, that the citizens of Wokingham need to make?

 

Supplementary Answer:

That is a really fantastic question and actually something that we are going to be talking about slightly later on. Behaviour change is the single most important thing that we can do as a Council, as individuals, as organisations, to combat climate change.  I am highly aware of that.  When we came back into this new session of Council this year, I switched the focus of the Council’s Officers from doing the strategic development phase of our Climate Emergency Action Plan, and making behaviour change our number one priority and our number one focus.  I have developed eight areas that I want the Council to focus our attention on.  I want us to work with big organisations and small organisations, charities, religious groups, and schools, everybody we possibly can, and use our role as a community influencer to bring people together and then use that opportunity to drive the behaviour change because we cannot do it one or two people at a time.  The problem is too big.  We have got to start thinking bigger.  We have got to start bringing organisations together, and we have got to set a very clear plan with WBC right in the very centre of it.