Committee details

Committee details

Climate Change Cabinet Advisory Group

Purpose of committee

Climate Change Cabinet Advisory Group (CCCAG)

Terms of Reference

July 2023

Background

Thanet District Council called a climate emergency on Thursday 11th July 2019. Following this, a cross party Climate Change Emergency Working Group was established and, on 2 September 2021, this was reconstituted to a Climate Change Cabinet Advisory Group to consider specific aspects of the emerging strategies and advise the cabinet accordingly.

A Net Zero Strategy and action plan was written and formally agreed at cabinet on Thursday 2nd March 2023 after public engagement.

Purpose

To monitor the progress on the Net Zero Strategy and action plan and advise Cabinet when there are risks to fulfilling the climate change pledges.
To oversee the production of new documents necessary to fulfilling the net zero pledges in a timely manner e.g. the 2024 action plan.
To report back to Cabinet on the outcomes of the group's considerations.

Objectives of the group

To consider relevant legislation, government policy and guidance in connection with strategy and policy reviews.
To receive briefings from Officers regarding key issues, successes, risks and opportunities.
To oversee the production of an updated carbon reduction plan, 2024 net zero action plan, a TDC Tree and Biodiversity Strategy and a TDC Climate Change Adaptation plan.
To consider potential new initiatives, for example to address emissions from Thanet’s transport.
To consider the outcome of any scrutiny reviews relating to the Net Zero action plan as conducted by the Audit Partnership
To present the key findings/conclusions/recommendations of the Group to the Leader of the council and/or relevant Portfolio Holder.

Membership, Chairmanship and Quorum

Number of Members	Nine
Chair	Cabinet Member for Corporate Services
Political Composition	5 Labour 3 Conservative 1 Green
Co-optees	As required
Substitutes	Yes
Political Balance Rules Apply	No
Appointments	By the Leader of the Council
Restrictions	Non cabinet Members only (chair aside)
Status	This is an advisory and not a decision making body and meets in Public.
Quorum	4
Number of Meetings	Every two months

Administration:

The group will meet every 2 months until agreed otherwise and meeting dates will be set in advance by the chair.
The meetings will be held publicly in the TDC Council Chambers.
Agenda items will be circulated and minutes taken at each meeting.
The Climate Change Officer will coordinate the Net Zero Director group and wider Climate Change Officer Working Group, the reports of which will feed into the agenda.
A climate change champion from CMT will attend the CC CAG meetings
Directors, Heads of services and officers can be called to give updates on relevant agenda items.

General

The work of the CCCAG is restricted to the stated terms of reference highlighted above unless they are reviewed by the Leader.

CCCAG meetings will be public and held in the council chambers. Minutes of meetings will be retained as a record of discussions and published on the council’s website.

The CCCAG is not a decision making body. Any suggested activity will be assessed against TDC’s resources and capacity to support delivery.

Notes

This Climate Change Cabinet Advisory Group was established through terms of reference approved by an Individual Cabinet Member decision made by the Leader of Council on 14 July 2023.