Agenda item

Slideshow presentation by Climate change officer summarising action to September 2023.

Dr Hannah Scott, Climate Change Officer gave a presentation including the following points:

·  As part of the Council’s pledge to address climate change, a number of initiatives were taken by the Council;

·  the Planning Policy had been changed to stipulate 110L capacity for new household water use instead of the standard 125L;

·  A number of other stipulations were included in the planning applications requirements;

·  The lowest emission vehicles on the market for the waste and recycle fleet were bought in 2020;

·  The mileage for waste collection vehicles were reduced to decrease diesel use;

·  Paper use on the office (i.e. through printing) had been reduced; for example, £190k had been used for printing in 2013 and in 2022 it was down to £76k;

·  Thanet now meets all UK air quality standards;

·  Some EV charging ports had been installed in TDC car parks and more are still to be installed;

·  An Energy Officer has been employed by the Council and the team had secured funding for many households to reduce high energy use for these households;

·  The Net Zero Strategy had been developed with an Action Plan underneath it;

·  Tree planting activities had been carried out across the district led by a Tree Planting Coordinator who had been contracted by the Council through a fully funded external grant;

·  KCC action: The George V Park had been turned into an urban drainage biodiversity area;

·  An Education Enforcement Officer had also been employed by the Council in 2021;

·  This officer established the Sustainability Forum;

·  The Thanet Coast Project had engaged thousands of volunteers to keep the coastline clean;

·  Through the S106 funding the Birdwise Project was created to protect the habitat for the protected bird species that nestle there;

·  The Council had been monitoring its carbon footprint where the highest emissions were recorded for the Ramsgate and Margate Leisure Centres, the offices that TDC occupy and the fleet;

·  A budget had been set aside for the purchase of electric vehicles in three years’ time;

·  Work is now taking place to install ev charging ports;

·  The main challenge with EV for waste collection was the mileage the bin lorries cover before recharging;

·  Boilers at the main council offices and the Kent Innovation Centre need replacing and the new Decarb Officer will be leading these new projects.

·  The wider TDC emissions within the Council’s spending was 3.5 tonnes of CO2e in 2019 - this will have increased in more recent years due to funds such as Levelling Up and the Town Deals;

·  The Council has added 5% climate change weighting to all its procurement;

·  There is a need to question whether the Council should procure from companies that have not pledged to decarbonisation going forwards;

·  The largest Thanet wide emissions are from housing and transport;

·  There were a number of initiatives for retrofitting Thanet homes;

·  The Net Zero Strategy and its related Action Plan were progressing well;

·  Moving forward all new housing development should not have gas installed;

·  Ashford Borough Council were working on such an initiative and were leading the way in Kent in terms of renewable energy use in their Local Plan;

·  The UN Secretary General said that the era of global warming had ended and that of global boiling had started;

·  In 2021 the government tried to put a monetary value on carbon change by introducing the social carbon value to work out the cost of carbon on society; This included working out the mortality cost of carbon;

·  Fossil fuels were the largest contributors to emissions, accounting for over 75% of the global greenhouse gas emissions and 90% of all the carbon emissions.

Members made comments and asked questions as follows:

·  It was important to be mindful to reduce carbon footprint. Any mitigation measures to be taken by the Council should be backed by accurate figures;

·  TDC has influence over carbon emissions of other organisations;

·  Aircraft emissions that were included in the TDC report did not include figures for the entire trip. They just had landing and take-off emission figures;

·  CO2 emissions needed to factor in the biomass facility at Discovery Park. This had been shown to be importing old timber from Latvia. This issue should be taken to Full Council and Cabinet;

·  There was a need to share this message with Dover District Council. The Chair agreed to look into this topic and feedback to members of the CAG;

·  Had the Council considered local energy generation?

·  Were such considerations part of the Local Plan review?

Dr Scott responded to Member comments and questions as follows:

·  In the TDC report, emissions that are associated with Thanet were the only ones that were added to Thanet’s carbon footprint. The rest are associated with the government’s carbon footprint;

·  The biomass plant is not within the district of Thanet however there could be a discussion regarding this issue; 

·  KCC were looking at a Kent wide approach for renewable energy through Local Area Energy Planning.

Members noted the report