Climate Change and Air Quality Progress Report 2022 to 2023

Defra carried out a national consultation from 11 to 21 April 2023 to seek views on the revised draft Air Quality Strategy, to which Buckinghamshire Council issued a response.

The revised Strategy sets out the actions the government expects local authorities to take in support of achieving our long-term air quality goals, including Defra’s ambitious new PM2.5 targets. It provides a framework to enable local

authorities to make the best use of their powers and deliver for their communities. The council’s Strategic Environmental Protection Team provided a detailed response to the consultation.

The Climate Response Team have been looking into the options available for carbon offsetting, such as sequestration by tree planting to generate Woodland Carbon Units which can be used to offset emissions from the council’s own operations (see Actions 13 and 14).

A total of seven interdepartmental working groups have been created since the adoption of the Climate Change & Air Quality Strategy.

Programme Board oversees the programme of works to plant 543,000 trees on council land by the end of the 2031 planting season. During the current reporting period over 145,000 trees have been planted.

This Board meets on a bi-monthly basis and includes representatives from Climate Change, Energy Management, Environmental Health, Communications, Regulatory Services and Housing. It is concerned with emissions mitigation and climate change adaptation initiatives for domestic properties across all tenures and receives reports from relevant initiatives such as Better Housing Better Health and the Sustainable Warmth Scheme.

The Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure (EVCI) Working Group deals with matters related to public, Council fleet and staff electric vehicle charging. Included are representatives from Parking Services, Transport Strategy, Air Quality, Energy Management, Waste Management, Highways, Property & Assets, and Climate Response Teams to name just a few! During this reporting period the group have met 6 times, serving as an opportunity to co-ordinate existing EV infrastructure work across the council.

It has facilitated closer collaboration on the Wendover EVCI and in-pavement which is currently open to expressions of interest from residents. The Group has also contributed to the submission of our Local Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (LEVI) fund expression of interest and will continue to drive the wider deployment of EV infrastructure through LEVI and other schemes.

The Council Estate and Climate Change Board oversees initiatives to reduce emissions from and enhance the resilience of (regarding climate change) the council’s estate (and includes representatives from Property and Assets, Climate Response, and Energy Management Teams).

In September 2022 the council started a programme to coordinate a response to the cost of living crisis - to ensure that residents can keep warm, have sufficient food and essentials for themselves and their families, and know where to find support if required (such as the Energy Doctor scheme).

This is a cross-council effort involving various service areas including:

• Service Improvement
• Communications
• Community Support
• Energy and Climate Change
• Culture, Sport and Leisure
• Revenues and Benefits
• Community Boards
• Public Health
• Human Resources
• Organisational Development

The Staff Climate Change Network is led and facilitated by Nick Graham, Service Director for Legal & Democratic Services, demonstrating the commitment to climate change across senior levels of our organisation.

With over 266 officers signed up to the mailing list, the network has met four times during the reporting period.

The purpose of the network is twofold:

1) To raise awareness internally of climate change activities within the council, whereby the network are regularly briefed on work such as the tree planting programme and domestic energy efficiency projects.

2) To promote behavioural change and encourage the sharing of ideas and best practice across the council. A meeting in July prompted helpful discussion about sustainability and recycling along with questions about opportunities for staff to participate in tree planting activities coming up in the next planting season.

July 2023 saw the adoption of Terms of Reference for the Fleet De-carbonisation Co-ordination Group.

Featuring representatives from across the council’s fleet operations, this group will focus on identifying the optimum approach to reducing, and eventually eliminating, the carbon emissions associated with our own fleet vehicles.

In the very first meeting, Officers agreed to work on the development of a strategy to determine the best way of achieving this.