Devon Climate Emergency Response Group – minutes of meeting 30th July 2019.
Download a PDF copy of the minutes here.
anchor link
Attendees
Phil Norrey, Devon County Council (Chair)
Doug Eltham, Devon County Council
Karime Hassan, Exeter City Council
Tracey Polak, Public Health Devon
David Eaton, Teignbridge District Council
Peter Chamberlain, Devon County Council
Janet Williams, Torridge District Council
James Szymankiewicz, Natural Devon
Ken Miles, North Devon District Council
Sophie Hosking, South Hams and West Devon Councils
Neil Hamlyn, DCIoS Local Resilience Forum
Clare Reid, Exmoor National Park Authority
Alex Gandy, Dartmoor National Park Authority
Bruce Luxton, Exeter City Council
Craig Nowell, University of Exeter
Patrick Devine-Wright, University of Exeter
Mark Williams, East Devon District Council
John Golding, East Devon District Council
Nicki Collas, Devon and Cornwall Police
Mark Rice, Environment Agency
Hugh McCann, University of Exeter
Stephen Wolford, Mid Devon District Council
Miranda Dalton, Devon and Cornwall Police
anchor link
Apologies
Mark Goodwin, University of Exeter
Virginia Pearson, Devon Public Health
Paul Netherton, Devon and Cornwall Police
Jenny Wallace, Torridge District Council
Ginny Snaith, Devon Clinical Commissioning Group
Vicki Howard, South West Ambulance Service Trust
anchor link
Minutes of the Previous Meeting
The minutes of the previous meeting were AGREED as a true record of the discussion.
The multi-agency Project Manager to be appointed by Devon County Council will be advertised by the 2 August. Depending on the notice period of the preferred candidate we may need to consider a temporary resource for the autumn.
anchor link
Signing the Devon Climate Declaration
All delegates provided an update on the progress of their organisations in signing the Declaration. A list of signatories is being maintained on the declaration webpage.
Devon CC funded a carbon footprinting workshop for district, parish and town councils on the 23 July, which was well received. The Centre for Energy and Environment at the University of Exeter shared a standardised approach to preparing an organisational carbon footprint to enable signatories to meet the first commitment of the Declaration.
Mark Williams advised that the district authorities are discussing how they can work together to establish their carbon footprints. Alex Gandy requested that Dartmoor be part of this conversation.
ACTION: All to continue to notify Doug Eltham when their organisation has signed so that the signatories list can be updated.
anchor link
Membership of the Net-Zero Task Force
Doug Eltham introduced a list of nominated members of the Net-Zero Task Force that had been collated by the Tactical Group.
Mark Williams and Tracey Polak asked if the Response Group felt that the themes of transport, buildings and health had strong enough representation amongst the nominees.
Patrick Devine-Wright advised that the Net-Zero Task Force will become increasingly difficult to manage beyond 12 core members but suggested inviting further members from the nominee list as advisory members to ensure all themes are represented.
The list of 12 nominees to invite as core members and 3 nominees to invite as advisory members was AGREED.
ACTION: Doug Eltham will arrange for the nominees to receive formal invitations to join the Net-Zero Task Force and for the membership to be published in due course.
anchor link
Funding Situation for the Net-Zero Task Force
Doug Eltham and Patrick Devin-Wright reported that a funding bid by the University of Exeter, supported by Devon County Council, to the Economy and Society Research Council (ESRC) has been unsuccessful. The funding was to be used by the university to undertake a literature review of how to most effectively operate a citizens’ assembly and to monitor the assembly’s delivery.
The ESRC has encouraged a resubmission in September for a substantially smaller sum.
This literature review will now be funded from Devon County Council’s contribution to the climate emergency response and funding contributions from other DCERG members will be sought to fill any shortfall later in the process.
Mark Williams offered potential funding contributions from East Devon District Council.
The literature review is scheduled to be complete by early October.
ACTION: Doug Eltham to arrange funding to deliver the literature review.
ACTION: Patrick Devine-Wright to resubmit the ESRC funding bid.
anchor link
Progress Update from the Climate Impacts Group
Neil Hamlyn provided an update on the workstream to undertake an initial review of climate-related community risks.
Four activities are underway:
- The Met Office is to produce a document outlining what climate change effects will be for the Local Resilience Forum (LRF) area as a reasonable worst case scenario (RWCS) for 2030 and 2050 and provide evidence to back up these predictions.
- The Environment Agency is to produce a document outlining what the impact will be of the predicted climate change on the LRF area in terms of sea level rise, flooding, drought, heatwave, etc. for the 2030 and 2050 RWCS.
- University of Exeter to produce a document of different knock on risks and impacts which are likely outside of the principal severe weather effects and usual LRF risks, such as social, political and economic impacts. E.g. impact on agriculture and tourism.
- Health to produce a report on likely impacts on health sector for the RWCS at 2030 and 2050, in terms of excess deaths due to events such as heatwaves, drought, severe weather, pressures on provision of services, increase in vector borne disease, plant and animal disease effects which may have knock on effect on human health.
The Climate Impacts Group has determined that these workstreams need to report before the conference of LRF partners occurs at the Met Office. Furthermore, the LRF resources are now focussed on planning for a no-deal Brexit. The conference was originally scheduled for October. This is now expected in January 2020.
The DCERG AGREED this revision to the schedule.
Peter Chamberlain asked if broader environmental and ecological issues are being explored sufficiently within the four activities and offered to consider this and report back to a future meeting.
The DCERG AGREED Peter’s offer.
ACTION: Peter Chamberlain to review the extent to which environmental and ecological issues are being considered within the climate impacts work.
anchor link
Next Meeting
The next meetings are scheduled for Thursday 5 September 10-11am and Tuesday 8 October 11-12am. These will be dial-in meetings only.
anchor link
Any Other Business
Green Great Britain Week is to be held during the 4 – 8 November 2019. This is an opportunity to publicise on social media the projects that DCERG partners have undertaken and are planning to undertake to reduce carbon emissions.
ACTION: The Tactical Group to compile a list of projects to be publicised during Green Great Britain Week.
