Issue - meetings

RESOLVED:

1.    That Cabinet note the progress and findings of the Greener Futures Climate Change Delivery Plan Progress Reports (Annex 1 and 2).

2.    That Cabinet agree the suggested programme amendments which lie within the scope of the current Greener Futures Climate Change Delivery Plan 2021-2025 and have been developed with the Greener Futures Member Reference Group and other partners.

Reasons for Decisions:

There has been some good progress and some notable partnership successes, especially in collaboration with districts and boroughs, in the first year of The Plan which should be noted. However, there are also some significant challenges to current and future delivery, which, while the current Plan is still sound, do require some amendments to how Surrey County Council and partners deliver over the remaining years to 2025/26, and these are set out in paragraph 12.

(The decisions on this item can be called-in by the Communities, Environment and Highways Select Committee)

The report was introduced by the Cabinet Member for Environment who provided an update on the Surrey Greener Futures Climate Change Delivery Plan which was agreed by Cabinet last year. The update included an update on progress towards the 2050 net zero county emissions target, successes achieved, challenges faced and changes in approach for the next year of implementation. Talking about some positives that had been achieved, the Cabinet Member explained that the council had reduced its carbon footprint by 17%, £13m had gone into active travel, 5.6MW of solar panels had been installed on domestic roof tops across the county in just

over one year, £1.2m in grants had been handed out to Surrey businesses to help them go green and electric charge points were being rolled out across the county. Referring to areas that required improvement, the Cabinet Member stated that there had been a slow down in the decarbonising of homes. The uptake of electric cars had been slow and in 2021 the uptake had only been at 2%. The Cabinet Member explained that a high profile NGO and Uswitch had recognised the good work the council had undertaken to tackle climate change.

The Deputy Cabinet Member stated that more work needed to be done to connect up the cycling network in Surrey and that he had visited Cambridge where the cycling infrastructure was exemplary. The council would aspire to improve its cycling network and details about possible improvements would be fed back to the Cabinet Member for Transport, Infrastructure and Growth.

RESOLVED:

1.    That Cabinet note the progress and findings of the Greener Futures Climate Change Delivery Plan Progress Reports (Annex 1 and 2).

2.    That Cabinet agree the suggested programme amendments which lie within the scope of the current Greener Futures Climate Change Delivery Plan 2021-2025 and have been developed with the Greener Futures Member Reference Group and other partners.

Reasons for Decisions:

There has been some good progress and some notable partnership successes, especially in collaboration with districts and boroughs, in the first year of The Plan which should be noted. However, there are also some significant challenges to current and future delivery, which, while the current Plan is still sound, do require some amendments to how Surrey County Council and partners deliver over the remaining years to 2025/26, and these are set out in paragraph 12.

(The decisions on this item can be called-in by the Communities, Environment and Highways Select Committee)