Devon Climate Emergency Tactical Group minutes of meeting 10 June 2019
Download a PDF version of the minutes here.
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Attendees:
Sarah Higgins, North Devon District Council
Doug Eltham, Devon County Council (Chair)
Drew Powell, South Hams and West Devon Councils
Andy Seaman, University of Exeter
John Golding, East Devon District Council
David Eaton, Teignbridge District Council
Paul Elsen, Western Power Distribution
Tom James, University of Exeter
Janet Williams, Torridge District Council
Nicki Collas, Devon and Cornwall Police
David Rose, South West Water
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Apologies:
Harry Barton, Devon Wildlife Trust
Hugh McCann, University of Exeter
Justin Bear, Plymouth City Council
James Szymankiewicz, Natural Devon
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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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Terms of Reference
Doug Eltham had circulated an early draft Terms of Reference to the Group and had subsequently incorporated some comments from Neil Hamlyn, Local Resilience Forum Manager at Devon and Cornwall Police. The conversation started around this revised draft.
Response Group Membership
It was AGREED that membership should be for strategic and membership organisations by invitation. This will keep the process manageable and will allow organisations and communities that wish to interact with the Response Group to do so through the Response Group organisation most-aligned to their interests.
In addition, it was AGREED that local authorities should be represented by officers rather than members. It will be the responsibility of officers to keep their members well informed of the planned process and progress.
The Group AGREED that a stakeholder map identifying how different stakeholder groups can engage with the governance structure would be helpful.
Communications
The Group AGREED that members should be encouraged to make best use of social media and the project website to raise awareness of the project.
Meetings
It was AGREED that dialling-in to meetings should be encouraged over travelling if travel cannot be done using low carbon modes.
Tactical Group – Establishing Sub-Groups
It was AGREED that the Tactical Group should be able to establish task-and-finish sub-groups without the mandate of the Response Group.
Climate Impacts Group
It was noted that the Risk Group of the Devon, Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Local Resilience Forum, which will deliver the role of the Climate Impacts Group, will benefit from input from the Devon Emergency Planning Partnership (DEPP).
Terms of Reference for this Group will be provided by Devon and Cornwall Police.
ACTION – John Golding will speak with the Devon County Council Emergency Planning Service about DEPP representation on the Climate Impacts Group.
ACTION – Doug Eltham will revise the draft Terms of Reference to reflect the agreed points to include a stakeholder map.
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Process for Producing a Devon Carbon Plan
Doug Eltham had circulated a draft process to the Group which incorporated advice from specialists in stakeholder engagement in policy making at the University at Exeter. The conversation started around this draft.
Doug Eltham provided clarification that this Tactical Group and the Project Manager (yet to be appointed) will support the experts on the Climate Task Force in preparing the Plan, arranging the hearings and delivering outputs. The citizens’ assembly would be procured and operated by a third party.
The Group advised that the sectors/topics to be represented by specialists on the Climate Task Force should be cross-referenced with the prominent carbon-emitting sectors identified in the 2018 review of Devon’s carbon emissions undertaken by the Centre for Energy and Environment (CEE) at the University of Exeter for Devon County Council.
ACTION: Doug Eltham to cross-reference and update list accordingly.
The general approach to producing the Devon Carbon Plan, with an independent chair for the Climate Task Force from the University of Exeter, was AGREED.
It was further AGREED that the 18-month timescale for the Devon Carbon Plan in no way prevents individual organisations and localities taking their own decisions and delivering their own projects more rapidly alongside the county-wide process.
ACTION: Doug to update the proposed process to incorporate the key points from the discussion.
ACTION: Tom James and Andy Seaman to discuss the appetite for IPCC lead authors at the University to be invited by the Response Group to chair the Net-Zero Task Force and notify Doug Eltham of the outcome.
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Next Steps
ACTION: Doug Eltham will circulate revised documents by Friday 14 June for further comment by the 21 June.
The final Terms of Reference and plan-making process will be recommended to the Response Group at their next meeting on the 26 June.
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Any Other Business
Some of the Response Group members are aware that they will need to enhance their capacity for carbon foot printing and to identify the opportunities available to them to reduce their organisation’s emissions in order to meet one of the commitments of the Devon Climate Declaration.
Doug Eltham offered for Devon County Council to arrange a workshop from the Centre for Energy and Environment through the existing South West Energy and Environment Group on carbon foot printing in July. It was AGREED that this would be helpful.
ACTION: Doug Eltham to initiate the carbon foot printing workshop
It was further AGREED that a subsequent workshop for councillors and officers to identify the top carbon-saving opportunities would also be beneficial.
ACTION: Doug Eltham to discuss with the Centre for Energy and Environment their capacity for providing a further workshop to be funded by Devon County Council.
Note that organisation-specific advice on carbon foot printing or carbon reduction projects will need to be funded by the individual organisation.
