Agenda item

(Voting: unanimous in favour)

The Portfolio Holder for Environment advised that this was a county-wide strategy which set out the ambitions of the 5 Somerset Authorities to tackle climate change.  She said it would also take the commitment of every resident, organisation and business in Somerset to embed the ambitions and achieve carbon neutrality.  A significant amount of work had gone into producing the document, the goals were ambitious and not all the answers were known but it was a significant step towards achieving net carbon zero in Somerset.  The strategy would evolve and would probably be very different in 5 years time.  She noted the 3 goals of the strategy:

·         To decarbonise Local Authorities, the wider public sector estates and reduce our carbon footprint

·         To work towards making Somerset a Carbon Neutral County by 2030

·         To have a Somerset which is prepared for, and resilient to, the impacts of Climate Change

She concluded by thanking the officers and Members of the Scrutiny Task and Finish group who had helped to guide the strategy document, and she proposed that the Somerset's Climate Emergency Strategy be adopted by Council.

During discussion the following points were made:-

·         The accompanying Equality Impact Assessment had identified that some groups of people would be disadvantaged by the Strategy, but, there were mitigation measures in place.

·         The breadth of the tackling climate change was enormous but the strategy document was very impressive and had embraced the subject well and in fine detail and was a great example of co-operation between the Somerset Councils.

·         The Strategy document needed some ‘poetry’ to engage and sell it to the community.

·         There was a climate emergency grant for Active Travel available for Parish Councils to link droves and footpaths and cycleways.

In response to questions from Members, the Portfolio Holder for Environment, the Lead Specialist for Strategic Planning and the Leisure and Recreation Manager advised:-

·         Health care providers had not been a key stakeholder involved in developing the strategy to date but when it came to delivering the actions they would be involved.

·         The Portfolio Holder was working with 3 Active Travel groups across Area East to implement some multi-user paths across the district.

·         There was a new Lead Specialist for Communities who was discussing with health providers the green referral system and this could be linked with rights of way and footpaths being accessible and our wider green tourism offer.

The Leader of Council congratulated the Portfolio Holder and the officers involved from the 5 councils for producing the detailed document and seconded its adoption by Council.

A named vote was taken and the Somerset Climate Emergency Strategy – “Towards a Climate Resilient Somerset” was unanimously agreed by all Members

(Voting: unanimous in favour)