Report by Head of Place (attached).

The Committee considered a report by the Head of Place (circulated previously) regarding the Interim Devon Climate Change Plan and North Devon Council Environmental Policy.

The Head of Place highlighted the following:

·       The Environmental Policy was agreed by the Strategy and Resources Committee for the purposes of consultation at its meeting on 3 August 2020.

·       The Committee agreed the Policy subject to the date by which the Council would achieve net-zero carbon being 2030 at the latest, rather than the recommendation of 2025 from the Council’s Climate Action Team.

·       For a variety of reasons the Policy had not yet been put out for public consultation.  One of these reasons was that in the intervening period the early draft of the Interim Devon Climate Change Plan was received for checking by the Local Authority partners, before going out to consultation.  

·       This Devon Climate Change Plan included the advice from the Devon Net-Zero Task Force that the target dates for reaching net-zero carbon should be 2030 at the latest for organisations and 2050 for the whole of Devon, reflecting the government’s current target.

·       The Net-Zero Task Force felt that with the current powers and levers available to local areas to achieve net-zero by 2050 would be challenging and that going for an earlier date would not be realistic or deliverable.

·       The Council’s Climate Action Team considered the proposals within the draft Interim Devon Climate Change Plan but did not wish to amend their recommendation to Strategy and Resources Committee.  However, to publish North Devon Council’s Environmental Policy now would overlap with the consultation period for the Devon consultation, which commenced on Monday 7 December, with the potential for confusion amongst the public in North Devon, with two different sets of target dates.

·       In consultation with the Lead Member for Climate Change, to avoid further delay in the Council adopting the policy, it was recommended that the Committee agree the Environmental Policy as it stands (as amended at Committee on 3 August) and recommended that Council adopts it as an interim policy.  It was identified as interim in recognition of the review that will be carried out in light of the consultation response to the Interim Devon Climate Change Plan and the subsequent finalised Plan.

·       Members had been invited to attend webinars that had been arranged in relation to the Interim Devon Climate Change Plan.

·       There were inconsistencies within the draft Environmental Policy which needed to be amended to reflect the latest target for the whole of Devon reaching net zero carbon by 2050.