There were no apologies for absence.

The minutes of the Climate Change Advisory Board held on Monday, 08 April 2024 were agreed and signed by the Chair.

Cllr Shane Mochrie-Cox declared an interest as he was the council’s appointee to Gravesham Community Leisure Limited.

The board agreed that the item above be taken first on the agenda.

The Engagement and Behaviour Change Officer (KCC) provided the board with a presentation that can be accessed using the following link: (Public Pack)Greener Kent Schools Programme - Presentation Agenda Supplement for Climate Change Advisory Board, 07/10/2024 19:30 (gravesham.gov.uk)

Following the presentation, the Engagement and Behaviour Change Officer (KCC) answered questions from the committee and explained that:

• The programme was about sharing the facts and not telling schools what to do. Schools across the country had implemented different ideas based on what worked best for them.
• The Engagement and Behaviour Change Officers’ relationship with Kent Highways was very limited, but the programme was in its beginning stages, and it was understood that there was a connection that they were interested in keeping open.
• The school community was much wider than just the pupils and the staff in the schools, and the hope was that the programme would have a wider community impact.
• There will be an academic term included within the programme that focuses on travel and will encourage walking to school. The Engagement and Behaviour Change Officer had good connections with the Active Travel team and will be working with them on their initiatives.
• A survey was sent out to schools in the summer asking them to choose their priorities, and this helped to form the basis of the topics for each term. However, food was a small priority, but it felt that given a third of world’s carbon emissions comes from the food system, it should be built into the programme. Topics such as energy inevitably cost money to change, however through food waste, it could produce a cost savings. This was also in line with legislative changes which meant that schools food waste needed to be separated.
• The Engagement and Behaviour Change Officer had a good understanding of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) but felt they should be introduced later into the programme.
• Social Enterprise Kent have the Green School Awards and Kent Wildlife Trust had the Wilder Kent Awards, and these were being shared with the schools.
• The goal was to get as many schools participating in the programme as possible. The department for Education’s target was for all schools to have their sustainability lead and climate action plan in place by 2025.
• The Department for Education had stated that the climate action plan was advisory, but the Engagement and Behaviour Change Officer believed that this could eventually become mandatory and form part of the Ofsted checks.

The committee noted the report.

The Climate Action Delivery Manager presented the board with a report that detailed the Climate Change Delivery Plan for consideration and to set out the preparation for the council’s fifth annual report.

Members were asked to consider and provide comments on the climate change delivery plan at appendix one and to support the approach set out in section three regarding the preparation of this year’s climate change action report.

Key activities that progressed within the last six months were highlighted in section two of the report, such as:

·        Decarbonisation work at cygnets’ leisure centre

·        Decarbonisation of fleet vehicles

·        Cycle to work scheme

·        EV salary sacrifice scheme

·        Retrofit work to improve EPC rating

·        Installation of EV charging points

·        Tree planting programme

·        Recycling campaign

Section three highlighted the preparations for the annual report which included borough and council emissions, carbon reduction actions and progress updates from the delivery plan areas of focus for the next year and for future projects.

Following questions and comments from members, the following was explained:

·        There were a number of projects and dedicated tasks that were marked as complete and there was evidence to support this. The dates were added for tracking purposes.

·        Initially, the senior officers/managers were targeted for climate change training, which was then completed. A new target was then set for members and when that was met, this extended out to a training programme for all staff, which was being worked on and would hopefully be completed by the end of the year.

·        In relation to section 1.5.2 – Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil (HVO) – The Assistant Director (Operations) explained that HVO was a replacement fuel for diesel, and the council were working on a business case for moving to HVO and whether this would be a straight swap or a blend. It was likely that a blend would be considered so that any unexpected operational risks could be assessed. Other local authorities had been looking at HVO and some had a small blend. The Assistant Director (Operations) was not aware of any local councils who had gone fully HVO, but there were multinational companies who had done so.

·        On a refuse freighter, fuel consumption would average 3-5 miles per gallon. This was the same across the country due to the way they operate as a slow-moving vehicle. The council had started to move its fleet of vehicles to euro 6 in 2014.

·        There were a number of reasons as to why EV dustcarts might not be the way forward, such as there being no guarantee on the milage and whether an entire round could be completed in one day. The depot did not have the infrastructure to charge them and when they had one on demo, it tripped the workshop overnight. The vehicles were also around £250,000 more expensive than a standard dustcart and they were heavier which meant that less rubbish could be carried.

·        Regarding EV vans, there were some vans that could be changed, but vans for Housing Operations were not parked  ...  view the full minutes text for item 49.

The Director (Corporate Services) presented the board with a report that detailed the delivery of the Climate Change Strategy thus far to allow consideration of the future strategic direction of the council’s climate action given the changes to national policy, the economic situation of the country and the council’s financial position since the council adopted the strategy in December 2020.

The paper was included on the agenda to enable to board to review and take account of the decision made by Cabinet to review the climate change strategy.

The report also set out the key emission sources for the borough and it looks to recognise that whilst the council have limited resources it was important that they were used to impact on the emissions within the borough. The proposal was that the council continued to look at its own emissions, which were only 0.5% of the total borough emissions, and try to use its position within the community as a leader to take action to reduce emissions across the borough.

The council will be undertaking consultation exercises and bringing a revised strategy to Council in April 2025.

The board agreed the report.

The Climate Action Delivery Manager presented the board with an update on the latest greenhouse gas emissions data that was published by the Department of Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ).

Each year, DESNZ published a report detailing greenhouse gas emissions data for every local authority area. Due to the amount of data used to compile the statistics, the data lagged by two years and the method of calculating the statistics was constantly being refined to provide the most accurate picture possible.

It was not unusual for the previous years information to be updated and the figures in previous years to be revised. The council will always use the latest available data to ensure it was consistent.

The yearly total for CO2 emissions for the year 2022 had declined in comparison to 2021. The two largest areas for emissions within the borough were transport at 42% and domestic properties at 32%, followed by industry and commercial properties at 12% and 10%. Within the transport category, the largest contributor to emissions was A-roads. This had been highlighted should the development of the Lower Thames Crossing proceed as it was likely that this would increase.

The most effective way for the council to decarbonise its housing stock and the wider private stock was to move to heating solutions that did not use fossil fuel.

The board discussed the issue surrounding EPC ratings. The Career Graded Surveyor advised that when installing heat pumps in domestic properties they were having to install solar panels as well to bring the EPC rating up and to prevent it from going down. The council work with a number of organisations who have direct input into DESNZ and who feedback the concerns. Pressure emerged from the likeliness that the decent homes standard would feature thermal comfort, in addition to legislation that introduced thermal comfort as a hazard in the property which had to be dealt with in a limited timescale. 

The committee noted the report.