SW Climate Change Action Plan Public Sector Role in Reducing Community Emissions 7 Dec

SW Climate Change Action Plan Public Sector Role in Reducing Community Emissions 7 Dec

SW Climate Change Action Plan – Public Sector role in reducing community emissions – 7 Dec

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Outline of the workshop

  • Presentation by Simon Roberts followed by Q&A’s
  • Current regional and sub-regional activity mapping exercise
  • Identified gaps in knowledge, and regional activity in this sector
  • Identified barriers to regional activity and solutions
  • Identified priority regional actions

Workshop leader
Simon Roberts (Centre for Sustainable Energy)
Attendees
Cornwall Sustainable Energy Partnership / Ben / Simpson
Cornwall County Council / Rachel / Bromley
Devon County Council / Cllr Humphrey / Temperley
Environment Agency - Exeter / Gwynneth / O'Rourke
Severn Wye Energy Agency / Jon / Bird
West Somerset District Council / Angela / Lamplough
Stroud District Council / Barry / Wyatt
Somerset County Council / Abigail / Lamberti
West Somerset District Council / Jon / Freeman
Wiltshire County Council / Pam / Gough
University of Exeter / Tony / Norton
Somerset County Council / Ian / Bright
Devon County Council / Ian / Bateman
South West Wildlife Trusts / Jane / Laurie
Dorset County Council / Kate / Hall
Government Office for the South West / Mike / Twomey
Natural England / Adrian / Jowitt
SWRA CCAP team members / David / Fletcher
Clare / Brewster

Workshop outputs:

A /

Existing regional / sub-regional activity

POST-IT NOTES / CCAP NOTES
1 / Friends of the Earth Community climate Change survey – 300 groups identified, 100 newly formed
2 / SW Wildlife Trusts follow up of FoE survey at County level & county workshops to be held by March 08
3 / Exeter Climate Change Analysis (Tony Norton/CEE)
4 / Devon Sustainable Energy Network Carbon Reduction Analysis
5 / RE4D – Renewable Energy for Devon
6 / Envision
7 / Development groups – Oxfam campaign / networks of local groups. Christian Aid similar
8 / Strategic imperative of finite fossil fuel reserves to reduce demand for energy & find other sources
9 / Engagement of the business sector in opportunities offered by low carbon economy
10 / Carbon Reduction commitment
11 / Progress in procedures for establishing carbon measurement with LA Carbon Management Programme
12 / Rise in number of community groups concerned about climate change
13 / Cornwall Sustainable Energy Partnership & CEP (??) funded by Cornwall County Council to produce a county wide Climate Change Strategy & Action Plan for Cornwall Strategic Partnerhsip. -> 2030 vision / county-wide targets / organisational action plans & targets.
14 / Cornwall Community Climate Forum
= community mobilisation in Cornwall organised through CSEP, supporting county Transition hub, Transition Cornwall Network, focused on peer support & developing joint working, is interface between community & strategic level (consultations, imput from grassroots into policy making).
15 / Churches Climate Change conference – Jan o8 ?
16 / Environmental organisations action on climate change – wildlife trusts, RSPB, FoE, etc – vast membership
17 / Resource Efficiency organisations – LA’s , University, local business partnerships
18 / West Somerset Forum 21
19 / Women’s Institute action on climate change – national to local level
20 / Stroud District – Small business energy efficiency advice, exemplar 40% homes, energy efficiency installer networks
21 / Car Share Devon
22 / Dorset Climate Change Coalition includes range of public and voluntary sector partners working together to communicate messages & encourage public to take action on climate change
23 / Implementation of Bournemouth, Dorset & Poole Renewable Energy Strategy through Dorset Energy Group & its 4 working groups on bioenergy, community renewables, planning, & energy efficiency.
24 / Development of Bournemouth, Dorset & Poole Energy Efficiency Strategy – includes domestic, public, business & community sectors
25 / Dorset Renewable Energy Reward (Stretch) target to increase energy installations in public & community buildings. [56 installations of installed capacity of 800kw by March 00 ??
26 / Stronger awareness of the need to take action
27 / West Somerset Council working with Forum 21 & other partners to produce Climate Change Strategy for whole of West Somerset – draft ready for Jan 08
28 / West Somerset Strategic Partnership – Natural environment is no 1 priority. Funding Climate change strategy for W Somerset
29 / Core Cities work between Bristol & Carbon Trust & Energy Saving Trust.
30 / LA role within Low Carbon housing
Business CSR (Corporate Sustainability Reports ?) programmes and action (Wiltshire)
31 / Integrating carbon targets into procurement and contract management
32 / Local food movement
33 / Wiltshire County Council transport partnerhship – pressure groups and analysis. Drive for Multi Area Agreements. Smartchoice Programme
34 / Sustrans Individualised travel planning
35 / LSP’s looking wider than LA’s own estate eg includes PCT’s, Universities etc
36 / Competition between LA’s to be ‘Green’

All of this demonstrates that there is significant levels of activity going on across the South West at local and community level (as with much of the rest of the UK), much of which has been stimulated, supported or encouraged by some local authorities (though usually where a wilful individual has taken it upon themselves to do so, rather than as the result of some strategically driven initiative).

Key question for regional strategy is whether there are things that could happen at a regional level to improve and stimulate more of this sort of activity. To which the answer is ‘yes’, but may fit best into (a) policies and practices to improve local authority performance on community carbon management in the region and (b) the forthcoming SW Energy Saving Trust Advice Centre which will have an explicit (though possibly unfunded) role to work with communities and local authorities to use their influence to mobilise individual action and behaviour change. CCAP could therefore commit to: ‘ensuring the new SW ESTAC has sufficient resources to enable it to take a leading role supporting local and community initiatives to mobilise action to curb carbon emissions’ (or something)

B / What we would like to see happen:

FLIPCHART TEXT

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CCAP notes

1 / Leadership at all levels / Noted
2 / How do we learn about tackling climate change – practically / Noted
3 / Clarity of guidance & function from central Govt to Local Authorities / Noted. Ongoing need for LA’s to have clear instructions, targets and guidance, and/or a good network for sharing best practice.
4 / Robust framework for climate change work / Noted.
5 / Fully resourced statutory function / Noted
6 / Objective data / Noted. Evidence base for the region so that LA’s can develop local carbon accounts based on agreed data.
7 / Balance between LA’s putting own house in order versus leadership / Regional organisations need to be aware of this point too. Needs to be a sense of real visible progress from public sector .
8 / Improve mode / quality of communications &encouraging people & businesses to do their bit / Noted. Communications to a key issue. Public sector needs to be involved in any regional communication co-ordination work.
9 / Carbon reduction via procurement / Influencing public sector procurement has always proved difficult but it is possible. Guidance / structure / best practice / networking etc needed.
C / Gaps in knowledge / activity:

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CCAP NOTES

1 / Need coherent programme and methodology and responsibility for carbon reduction / Noted. LA’s looking for guidance on how to deliver a local low carbon economy. Needs clarification of roles and responsibilities.
2 / Consistent carbon accounting framework – National PI’s / Noted. National issue but possible that regional guidance / support would be helpful.
3 / LA access to CO2 emissions data / Original point being made regarded the difficulty of getting real data from the utility companies on actual energy used & therefore having to work from estimates. Could region help with this ?
4 / Are Local Transport Plans delivering carbon reductions ? / LTP’s don’t currently measure carbon impact of policies – but some LA’s are beginning to look into this area & best practice could be shared within the region.
5 / Corporate urgency in LA’s / A professional co-ordinated support programme for LA’s would raise the profile of LA CC activity. LA’s will always respond to statutory requirements first so urgency may depend on national legislation.
6 / Developing action in co-ordination with voluntary & community groups / Some EEAC’s have successfully worked with community-led groups and achieved good results. This work needs to be publicised and replicated where possible.
7 / Planning role – to provide for and anticipate commercial energy demand & large scale renewables / Issue was also raised in other workshops re how planning system can help co-ordinate energy demands. National issue with local impact – needs research & lobbying
8 / Peer review / networking for relevant LA officers / Idea of SWRA running a Peer Review for LA’s on Climate Change has been suggested. Additional point here is that LA officers working on CC want a better network in region.
D /

Barriers

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Solutions

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CCAP NOTES

/ / / 1 /

Incoherent programme from central govt

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1

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Region to review what LA’s can do – make it coherent

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There is concern that LA’s not getting a clear steer from central govt – or that LA’s are given conflicting priorities. Providing regional guidance & a network of support should help.

Clarification / commentary in grey rows …

/ / Clarification / commentary in grey rows … / 2 / Lack of consistent carbon accounting system / Noted. If regional evidence base can provide a consistent data source / format / system for local level then evidenced based working can become the norm and comparison becomes easier. Who & how could this be achieved ?
3 / Confusion of roles for Carbon Trust & Energy Saving Trust / Noted. Need to achieve co-ordination of key regional (carbon reduction) stakeholders in their aims and objectives. Need to identify who & how this can be achieved.
4 / LA’s don’t have access to emission information in their areas / See C3 above.
5 / No mechanism for networking good practice – difficult to access information / 5 /
  • Region to facilitate sharing of best practice
  • Region to provide LA’s with information on what ‘step changes’ are required (see ‘Matrix’ above and below)
/ Networking for LA’s in region on CC.
6 / Indifference of public ? Lack of knowledge of what to do ? / 6 /
  • LA’s to participate in process of engaging with communities
  • Leadership demonstrated by LA’s eg deploying RE on own estate
/ LA’s have front-line role with providing info to public on behaviour change issues. Links to communication issue & current confusion of messages & need for coherent structure to messages to be developed.
7 / Lack of effective marketing to public on what action to take / There are national, regional & local elements to the communication of CC – the key will be to find a way of bringing coherence that results in better understanding and action by the public. Need to take note of best practice examples.
8 / Danger of ‘silo-ing’ climate change within LA’s / 8 /
  • Position Climate Change at high level in organisations
  • Get it in Strategic Plan & then Corporate Plan –
  • CC integrated & cross cutting actions (see Matrix!)
  • Climate Change impact highlighted (targets / outputs)
  • Identify and highlight benefits of effective action
  • LGA could have role to bring LA’s together on climate change
/ See also C5 above.
Advantages of Carbon Management Programme approach can be that carbon reduction is adopted by all Directorates – though not necessarily wholeheartedly. Work inevitably falls to one or two individuals in the early stages – only later becoming part of other people’s jobs via service delivery. There is no short cut other than via target setting / KPI’s etc which make it a higher profile issue.
9 / Absence of ‘buy-in’ from senior management / Regional leadership, league table or awards / Links to issues of regional evidence based working, achieving real reductions not just signing declarations.
10 / No road map – no clarity / 10 /
  • Region to provide sensible time framed road map
  • Develop CSE Matrix – identify road map actions –
/ See B3 & C1
One option is to use the CSE Matrix as a base structure & roll that out to all LA’s in SW.
11 / Skills gap – people to deliver it – need for new skilled & trained people / 11 /
  • Region to support training programme to bridge skills gap
/ Needs assessment of what skills are lacking now & capacity to provide training and people to deliver activity.
E / Priority Actions
FLIPCHART TEXT / Lead org’n / CCAP NOTES
1 / Produce a regional version of the CSE Matrix to understand where LA’s are & where they need to go. ( A Peer review process ?) / SWRA regional secretariat / Possible key action to provide a regional structure to LA CC work by providing a management matrix (a road map?). Could integrate with a Peer Review for LA’s on CC work.
2 / A framework for sharing good practice / SWRDA, SWRA, GOSW ? / Part of E1 ?
3 / ??? / LIFT SW
Creating Excellence / Involve LIFT SW / creating Excellence in this work (&LGA).
4 / Roll out of Carbon Trust LA Carbon Management Programme to all LA’s in SW / ??? LGA? / Issue is getting all LA’s to have carbon management integrated into own organisational processes. CT CMP is one option. [ Overall CO2 output of public sector is significant so need to widen this element to all public sector not just LA’s]
Get all LSPs to adopt climate change indicators (all 3) in their LAAs (and MAAs) and set ‘stretch’ targets / Key action / issue around LAA’s and LSP’s and how they can be assisted to act effectively on local emissions. Needs best practice examples, co-ordination & delivery. Again this could be attached to a Peer Review process.
F /

Links to other CCAP strands

FLIPCHART TEXT /

CCAP NOTES

1 / Transport – CO2 reduction from behaviour changes & the way people live in ‘places’.
Public & cycling infrastructure / LA’s are the Local Transport Authority so strong connection to transport chapter & how LA’s work on carbon reduction in transport.
G /

Other comments & issues

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CCAP NOTES
Discussion around following question:
  1. Do we now have a road map for LA’s (looking ahead) to embrace their leadership role in mitigating climate change ?
  2. What support, framework at a regional level, would add value to LA’s ?
/ Issue of what LA’s want in terms of a regional performance structure and then guidance & support to raise their standards. Something for the Peer Review process to consider ?

So, from this overall, key issues for CCAP in relation to local authorities:

Nearly everything a local authority does can have an influence – positive or negative, intentional or unintentional – on carbon emissions from its locality. This ranges from obvious regulatory and service provision roles like planning, housing policy, education and transport to wider strategic interventions such as economic development and civic leadership. It is far from the only influence on local carbon emissions, but it can be significant and positive where a local authority has taken purposeful steps to make it so.

It is therefore vital that every local authority and public sector body in the region aligns its activities with regional and national efforts to curb carbon emissions. This means establishing a clear sense of how local authorities are currently performing and what steps they need to take to improve their performance. The region can play a key role by:

  • Establishing and promoting a consistent framework for local authority performance assessment and improvement, (potentially based on the CSE Local & Regional Carbon Management Matrix)
  • Setting and monitoring targets for performance improvement across local authorities (for example all to be at least ‘good’ on the Matrix by 2012 and ‘excellent’ by 2015) and establishing benchmarking groups of similar authorities to identify exceptional improvement.
  • Ensuring resources are available to support local authorities in their performance improvement, potentially through the ESTAC in the South West and Regen SW, with particular focus on delivering consistently high quality target setting within Local and Multi Area Agreements associated with the 3 climate change performance indicators.
  • Ensuring the new SW ESTAC has sufficient resources to enable it to take a leading role supporting local and community initiatives to mobilise action to curb carbon emissions’.

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