Download a PDF of the minutes here.
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Attendees
Doug Eltham, Devon County Council
John Golding, East Devon District Council
Richard Merrifield, Public Health Devon
Sarah Higgins, North Devon District Council
David Eaton, Teignbridge District Council
Nicki Collas, Devon and Cornwall Police
Harry Barton, Devon Wildlife Trust
Andrew Gunther, Torbay Council
Natalie Daikin, South Hams and West Devon Councils
Liz O’Driscoll, Exeter City Futures
Jake Burnyeat, Communities for Renewables
Alastair Mumford, Devon County Council
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Apologies
Drew Powell, South Hams and West Devon Councils
James Szymankiewicz, Natural Devon
Andy Seaman, University of Exeter
Tom James, University of Exeter
Janet Williams, Torridge District Council
David Rose, South West Water
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Minutes of the Previous Meeting
The minutes were AGREED to be a true record of the discussion.
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Devon Energy Collective
Alastair Mumford and Jake Burnyeat led a discussion about the opportunity for large energy consumers in Devon to simulate new community-owned renewable energy installations by collaborating and committing to buy energy direct from community generators (themselves collaborating through the Devon Energy Collective) via power purchase agreements.
This energy purchased can be treated as carbon neutral within organisational carbon footprints.
Devon County Council is commissioning some legal advice regarding this procurement method, which will be ready in the spring and will be shared with interested parties.
ACTION: Jake to circulate the proposal.
ACTION: Interested parties to make themselves known to Alastair Mumford by end of January
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Rural Electric Vehicle Chargepoints
Alastair Mumford raised an opportunity to collaborate on a funding bid to the Office for Low Emission Vehicles for charge points in rural areas.
ACTION: Alastair Mumford to circulate information and interested parties to let Alastair know of their interest.
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Update on Project Manager and Communications Resource
The new Project Manager, Emily Reed, has been in post since the 11th November 2019.
A full-time communications resource for the project will be in post from early January. An initial task will be to prepare a communications strategy to engage more with local councils and communities to share tools and actions that can begin to be implemented immediately. Liz O’Driscoll highlighted a resources webpage that Exeter City Futures is compiling on its website, which could be part of this.
ACTION: Liz O’Driscoll to circulate the webpage once prepared.
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Update on the Devon Carbon Plan
Call for Evidence
The Call for Evidence will remain open until early 2020. Almost 500 submissions so far.
Data
The 2017 territorial greenhouse gas emissions baseline data has been compiled by the University of Exeter and circulated to each local authority. This will be published online soon.
The University of Exeter has also been commissioned to produce projections of greenhouse gas emissions for Devon, Plymouth and Torbay based on the emissions scenario designed by the UK Committee on Climate Change. This will help determine the likely effectiveness of different policy interventions that could be included within the Devon Carbon Plan on reducing Devon’s greenhouse emissions. Devon and Plymouth data has been drafted and is with the Net-Zero Task Force for comment. Torbay data will be produced in the New Year.
Thematic Hearings
The thematic hearings are under way.
Citizens’ Assembly Procurement
The University of Exeter has produced a rapid evidence review recommending how the Citizens’ Assembly should operate, which has been shared with the Tactical Group and the Devon Climate Emergency Response Group.
Councillors at each local authority are reviewing the recommendations. Any comments from councillors will be considered by the Net-Zero Task Force.
Procurement of a recruitment and facilitation provider will commence in January.
The Tactical Group provided some immediate comments to Doug Eltham.
ACTION: Doug to feedback comments to the Net-Zero Task Force.
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Update from the Climate Impacts Group
A workshop between Local Resilience Forum (LRF) risk leads occurred on the 16th October at the Met Office. A write-up of the discussion will be available in December following a period of LRF resources being focussed on Brexit.
The LRF manager, Neil Hamlyn, Devon County Council’s Emergency Planning Manager, Amanda Palmer, Doug Eltham are meeting in mid-December to establish the next steps.
Peter Chamberlain of Devon County Council and James Szymankiewicz as chair of Natural Devon will meet with the LRF to discuss how to incorporate broader environmental risks into this workstream.
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Local Updates from Members
Each member provided an update on their activity to address the climate emergency locally. Most are compiling organisational carbon footprints and developing local action plans.
ACTION: Janet Williams to setup a sharing platform for members to share their local activity.
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Funding Opportunities
The Free Tree Scheme is operational for the area administered by Devon County Council . https://www.devonashdieback.org.uk/take-action/free-tree-schemes/
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Next meeting
January 7th 2pm – 4pm. Meeting invitations have been sent.
