Agenda, decisions and minutes

RESOLVED: That the minutes of the meeting held on 9 September 2021 be agreed as an accurate record of proceedings.

1.1       RESOLVED: That the minutes of the meeting held on 9 September 2021 be agreed as an accurate record of proceedings.

It was noted that Councillor Louise Krupski was a South East London Combined Heat & Power (SELCHP) Board Member.

2.1       It was noted that Councillor Louise Krupski was a South East London Combined Heat & Power (SELCHP) Board Member.

RESOLVED: That

1.         Each select committee should appoint a climate change champion to ensure that (a) the annual work programme takes climate change matters into account; and (b) officers are given appropriate steers in relation to the reports for specific items, to ensure they include relevant climate change considerations.

2.         Planning Members receive training on the interaction between the climate emergency and the planning process.

3.         There is an annual all-member briefing on the climate emergency covering the action taken and action planned by the council and partners - and information on any constraints and challenges.

3.1       Cllr Penfold introduced the item and spoke of the importance of seeing all council business through the lens of climate change and of the efforts being made to make the borough carbon neutral by 2030.

3.2       Christopher Hammond from UK100 presented to the Committee and the following points were highlighted:

·           UK100 brings together local authorities to share knowledge, collaborate, and petition the UK government on climate change using their collective power. Members pledge to play their part in the global effort to avoid the worst impacts of climate change by accelerating local delivery of Net Zero emissions of greenhouse gases.

·           Key issues discussed at COP26 included coal, cars, cash and trees and it was clear that a single co-ordinated global approach was required to reduce global warming to 1.5 degrees centigrade.

·           Although the declarations on coal were not as strong as hoped, there had been a clear signal to the market that coal was on its way out and the UK had significantly reduced its reliance on coal in recent years.

·           On cars it had been agreed that 100% zero emission vehicle sales would be achieved in the UK by 2035.

·           Cash – it was critical to support the countries that would be affected most by climate change, noting that these were often developing countries. Unfortunately the investment needed had not reached pledged levels yet.

·           On trees the news was more positive and Brazil in particular had pledged significant action against deforestation.

·           The challenges for both local and national government included ensuring the public recognised the need for action; ensuring stakeholders had a stake and a say; reducing the ‘green premium’ as tech gets scaled up; and learning from mistakes.

3.3       In response to questions from the Committee the following was noted:

·         Whilst electric cars caused less pollution that petrol or diesel cars, they were not carbon neutral as the energy grid was not yet completely decarbonised meaning that electricity was still being generated, in part, via dirty sources. A key focus should be reducing as many unnecessary car journeys as possible, however they are made, and encouraging active travel (walking and cycling) and travel by public transport.

·         Coal and burning wood remained a key energy source in many developing countries and the developed countries that had benefitted from this form of energy previously had a responsibility to help developing countries decarbonise.

·         Local authorities had a unique leadership role and as well as taking action themselves should use their visible leadership to encourage their partners to take action too.

·         Tackling climate change should not be seen as a fringe activity within a council but a strategic goal, with all services involved and with a strong lead from the executive management team and political leadership.

·         Local authorities might wish to focus on the top three activities producing the most emissions and aim to reduce these significantly.

·         Whilst progress was being made at a central government level it was not being made fast enough and was too centralised – the devolving  ...  view the full minutes text for item 3.

RESOLVED: That (a) the update be noted; (b) officers working on the Resident Experience Programme keep the councillors that have led on this work up to date on progress; and (c) a further update on the programme is received at the next meeting.

4.1       Councillor Walsh introduced the item, followed by Atika Mohammed. It was noted that the ideas generated via the session for Members with Lou Downe, a service design expert, and the four member workshops, would be taken forward as part of the resident experience programme. Members were thanked for the time and effort that they had put into working on this following the last committee meeting. Councillor Kevin Bonavia, as the relevant Cabinet Member, echoed this thanks and reiterated that a fit for purpose casework system would be developed as part of the programme. Murray James reported that there was no technical impediment to staff not being able to clear their voicemail inboxes and that instructions on how to do this would be re-circulated to all staff.

4.2       RESOLVED: That (a) the update be noted; (b) officers working on the Resident Experience Programme keep the councillors that have led on this work up to date on progress; and (c) a further update on the programme is received at the next meeting.