Issue - meetings

As detailed in the recommendation.

Councillor Healey introduced the report and explained that the Council calculated its carbon footprint annually to measure the quantity of greenhouse gas emissions it was responsible for to monitor and direct decarbonisation efforts towards Net Zero Carbon by 2030. In September 2023, the calculation for the period 1^st April 2022 – 31^st March 2023 was completed and submitted to Welsh Government (WG).

The Carbon Emission Update 2022/23 presented the results of the 2022/23

calculation whilst comparing them against figures from the Council’s baseline year of 2018/19, which showed a reduction of greenhouse gas emissions in 2022/23. The report also provided explanation as to why emissions had changed, as well as noting any improvements or difficulties relating to the data and methodology.

The report concluded with a recommendation to investigate the use of digital technologies such as Microsoft Power BI to improve data quality for greater emissions management and reduce the time staff spent collecting the data, and also key considerations for the Climate Change Strategy review in 2024/25, in particular baseline emissions and targets for Supply Chain and targets for Mobility & Transport.

The Chief Officer (Planning, Environment and Economy) said data was maturing all of the time and would be better again the following year, particularly in relation to staff travel.  Questions were raised at Environment and Economy Overview and Scrutiny Committee on the way in which data was presented and in future, different types of renewable energy would be split within the report.  A request was also made for additional data on baseline figures and the report was broadly supported.

RESOLVED:

That the report be noted, including the progress made in the past year to improve data collection for the Council’s carbon footprint.