Devon Climate Emergency Response Group Meeting, 21st December

Attendees

Phil Norrey – Devon County Council

Penny Tranter – Met Office

Harry Barton – Devon Wildlife Trust

Angus Berry – South West Water

Andrew Butler – National Farmers’ Union

Emily Reed – Devon Climate Emergency

Chris Clarke – Wales and West Utilities

Emmanuelle Marshall – Plymouth City Council

David Eaton – Teignbridge District Council

Sara Gibbs – Public Health Devon

Victoria Hatfield – Exeter City Council

Janet Williams – Torridge District Council

Mark Clapham – Devon Association of Local Councils

Keir Duffin – Devon County Council (Economy and Enterprise)

Claire Gibson – Heart of the South West Local Enterprise Partnership

Apologies

Doug Eltham – Devon County Council (Environment Group)

Clare Reid – Exmoor National Park Authority

Emily Reed – Devon Climate Emergency

Jason Ball – Mid Devon District Council

Mark Kentell – North Devon District Council

Alex Gandy – Dartmoor National Park Authority

David Edmondson – Torbay Council

David Bartram – Exeter City Council

Emma Page – University of Exeter

Neil Hamlyn – Local Resilience Forum

Mark Rice – Environment Agency

Helen Dobby – Environment Agency

Adam Williams – South Hams and West Devon Councils

David Ralph – Heart of the South West Local Enterprise Partnership

1. Minutes of the Previous Meeting

The minutes of the previous meeting were AGREED as a true record of the discussion.

2. Project Progress Report

2.1 General Project Communications

Emily Reed provided an update reflecting Section 1.1 of the Progress Report at Annexe 1 of these minutes.

2.2 Net-Zero Task Force Update

Emily Reed provided an update reflecting Section 2.1 and 2.2 of the Progress Report at Annexe 1 of these minutes and invited questions.

2.3 Climate Impacts Group Update

Emily Reed provided an update reflecting Section 3 of the Progress Report at Annexe 1 of these minutes

Appendix 1 – Project Progress Report

Period: October 2021 to November 2021

Status Indicator Key:

[RED] = Significant issue that requires Response Group intervention;

[AMBER] = Minor issue that will initially be managed by the secretariat, but the Response Group should be aware;

[GREEN] = No issue.

1. Partnership Update

1.1. General Project Communications [GREEN]

1.1.1 Following

Newsletters continue to be issued on schedule and social media followings are growing. Monthly growth continues to be about 2%. As anticipated, we have seen some growth in our YouTube channel during the previous month due to the release of the COP26 films but we didn’t see a step in followers across all platforms that we had hoped for from the conference.

1.1.2 Campaigns

Current:

Low-Carbon Christmas campaign: This campaign focuses on encouraging sustainable shopping, travelling and eating habits this Christmas. We have developed a ‘low carbon Christmas list’ which gives people 25 tips on how they can reduce their personal emissions throughout advent. We will also be linking this to sustainable travel by reminding people to take part in the Winter Wheelers campaign.

Sustainable travel campaign: collaborating with Travel Devon to promote active/sustainable travel opportunities in the south west. We have added resources to our web page and are uplifting the ‘Winter Wheelers’ campaign run by Love To Ride, and promoting other Devon County Council sustainable travel initiatives, highlighting health co-benefits.

Upcoming:

Active Travel for Local Businesses: This campaign involves further collaboration with Travel Devon, uplifting their January campaign which aims to encourage local businesses and organisations to promote active travel amongst their workforce.
Public Health Collaboration: In the new year we will find further opportunities to highlight the co-benefits of emissions reduction, both through behaviour-change campaigns and Local Plans. This will involve collaborative meetings designed to explore areas of potential crossover between public health campaigns and DCE comms.

COP26 Events

As part of the COP26 domestic campaign Devon held a consortium of events. Four in-person events took place across Devon, as well as the production and release of several video case studies which were shared online.

The in-person events were attended by 1109 people in total. The feedback from events was positive. Collectively the video case studies produced have been viewed across a number of social media channels several thousand times. The video case studies, along with additional written case studies drawn up, are now live on the Carbon Copy website – helping to showcase action being taken in Devon more widely.

You can view the video case studies here: Devon Climate Emergency partnership, Top Tips, Decarbonising Transport in Devon, Climate Change and Teignbridge, Exmoor – Our actions for climate and nature and East Devon – Food for Thought.

We also recorded a video interview with Peter Lefort, who represented the Local Authority Climate Adaptation Tool at COP26 this year. This has been shared on social media and is available to watch on our YouTube channel and website.

Partners’ Notable Activity

Activity is recorded centrally on the Taking Action pages of the Devon Climate Emergency website. Notable activity this month is:

Work has started to implement the energy upgrades to some of Teignbridge District Council’s leisure facilities, announced earlier in the year

Exeter City Council is nearing completion of its Passivhaus leisure centre

Teignbridge District Council is consulting on potential sites for wind energy as part of its draft Local Plan 3.

Devon County Council is retrofitting five corporate buildings

Season 2 of the Future Plymouth 2030 webinar programme has begun. This intends to discuss the collaboration required to achieve reduced carbon development and present some of the tools necessary to realise a sustainable city.

Devon is leading the way on new approaches to carbon reduction in highway maintenance

Net-Zero Task Force Update

Interim Carbon Plan ? [GREEN]

In November, the Response Group agreed to proceed directly from the current version of the Interim Devon Carbon Plan on the website to a Final Carbon Plan. This does not change the timetable for publishing the final plan but removes the stage of publishing an updated version of the Interim Plan in the meantime. The Final Carbon Plan will incorporate the consultation amendments and the actions that are being developed in response to the Devon Climate Assembly.

The rewrite of the Built Environment section has been distributed to the partnership for comment by the end of January.

Citizens’ Assembly Resolutions ? [GREEN]

In November, the Response Group signed off the draft actions so that they can be shared with Members and boards. Emily Reed circulated a paper that can be adapted by partners to help communicate the consultation issue to their specific audiences. Comments will ideally be returned by partners to Emily by the 27^th January.

Meetings have occurred with the web developer to plan how the consultation will appear on the website in March, implementing the lessons we learned from the Interim Carbon Plan consultation last year.

Climate Impacts Group Update ? [AMBER]

£25k from the Flood Defence Grant in Aid fund to provide a 6-month resource to accelerate the preparation of the Adaptation Plan has been awarded to Devon County Council. WSP consultants have been engaged to take forward the next stages of the Adaptation Plan. Their workplan is being firmed up with the Group and the new timetable for the preparation of the Plan will then be shared with the partnership.

At its latest meeting in December, the Group decided to revisit what is required from the Adaptation Plan before proceeding with the next stages to ensure it gets best value from the £25k funding. A workshop has been planned for January.

Summary Comments

The Interim Devon Carbon Plan will stay in its current draft on the website. It will not be updated before the Final Carbon Plan is published in August. Partners continue to implement the Interim Plan.

The partnership is consulting with Members and boards about the proposed actions to implement the resolutions from the Citizens’ Assembly. The detail of how the consultation in March will operate is being planned.