Issue - meetings

Cllr David Gray, Cabinet Member for Environment and Planning, provided an update of progress on the Gloucestershire Climate Change Strategy and sought approval of the action plan 2023-2028.

Having considered all of the information, Cabinet noted the report and

RESOLVED to:

1)    Note the overall emissions for the County Council and for Gloucestershire outlined in the decision report published with the agenda and in Annex 1 to the report;

2)    Note the progress and planned key actions outlined in the published decision report and in Annex 1; and

3)    Approve the outline five-year Action Plan (Annex 1, Appendix 2), for report to Leadership Gloucestershire’s Climate Leadership Group.

Cllr David Gray, Cabinet Member for Environment and Planning, provided an update of progress on the Gloucestershire Climate Change Strategy and referred members to Annex 1 of the report, (third annual report) and gave an update on progress of the refreshed 5-year action plan to 2027/280.

Confirming the council’s commitment to the vision of achieving a carbon neutral county by 2045 and remaining on target to reach net zero by 2030, Cllr Gray outlined some of the steps included in the programme from which to achieve such outcomes, including, in 2022,

Ø  Commencing construction of the cycle path linking Cheltenham and Gloucester;

Ø  Opening of the carbon neutral Leckhampton High School;

Ø  Planting of 66,000 trees across the county;

Ø  Restoration of the Gloucestershire Youth Climate Group and Climate Leadership Gloucestershire, following the hiatus caused by the pandemic;

Ø  Campaigns to guide residents to reduce their environmental impacts, with an increase in recycling rates across the county increasing to 50.8%.

Outlining some of the activities included in the refreshed 5-year action plan, Cllr Gray highlighted the;

Ø  Planting of over 80,000 trees in the current planting season;

Ø  Installation of 1,000 Electric Vehicle charging points;

Ø  Increasing flood resilience;

Ø  Supporting Biodiversity Net Gain (a new Biodiversity Officer has recently joined the Council to implement the Local Nature Recovery Strategy in Gloucestershire);

Ø  Investing in carbon neutral school buildings;

Ø  Retrofitting activities to decarbonise existing buildings

Ø  Promoting the Staff Green Champions initiative and Carbon Literacy Training.

From such activities, the County Council remained committed to the task of fighting climate change and delivery of a Greener Gloucestershire.

Having considered all of the information, Cabinet noted the report and

RESOLVED to:

1)    Note the overall emissions for the County Council and for Gloucestershire outlined in the decision report published with the agenda and in Annex 1 to the report;

2)    Note the progress and planned key actions outlined in the published decision report and in Annex 1; and

3)    Approve the outline five-year Action Plan (Annex 1, Appendix 2), for report to Leadership Gloucestershire’s Climate Leadership Group.