Council considered a recommendation from the Environment and Sustainability

Committee held on 17 November 2021 regarding Climate Change and setting of a target of 2030 for being net zero.

In moving the Motion to set a target of 2030 for being net zero, Cllr Heath, Chairman of Environment and Sustainability Committee, listed the achievements the Council had already made on climate change such as the LOCASE scheme encouraging businesses to go green, funding for energy efficiency, Solar Surrey, River Thames Scheme,and improving our housing stock. That said ,Cllr Heath stated that the public needed clarity on the Council’s vision. There was an urgent need for a thought-out strategy which set objectives and outlined the priorities and challenges. The Council would need to constantly review its work and flag the areas where it was not moving towards net zero and that we would be transparent with residents. It was important the Council involved residents in this work, and this would be done through a community engagement forum where updates would be given on our progress, support would be sought and ideas listened to. The target of net zero was in relation to the Council and not the entire Borough but Surrey County Council were working with districts and boroughs to get Surrey as a county to net zero by 2050. Finally, Cllr Heath said that whilst elected Members needed to be pragmatic and realistic in the work they did, they also needed to be visionary at times and that the climate change situation required that vision and ambition and that setting a target of 2030 would provide the impetus to move forward at pace on addressing climate change. The Climate Change Strategy which would come forward by the end of this Municipal Year would be important in setting out the plan to meet this target.

An Amendment was moved by Cllr Furey that an addition be made to the Motion ‘that reviews be put in place biannually in 2024, 2026, 2028 and 2030’.  The Amendment was moved in order to ensure progress towards the target was periodically reviewed and any blockages to its achievement considered and addressed. Cllr Furey considered it important that residents were kept informed of progress and that the achievement of the target would require their support and engagement. In response, Cllr Heath stated that the target related to the Council’s emissions and not the emissions of the wider borough and residents.

The Amendment was put to the vote and declared to be lost.

A further Amendment was moved by Cllr Mullens to provide greater clarity that  the target related to the Council’s own organisational emissions and would provide a baseline against which progress could be made. The Amendment was as follows:

‘Runnymede Borough Council sets target of 2030 to be net zero for its organisational emissions. The baseline for monitoring progress to this goal will be the figure reported in the RBC Greenhouse Gas Emissions Report for 2019/2020. The plan for how we are going to get to net zero will be set out in the council’s Climate Change Strategy to be published by the end of this Municipal Year.’

Other Members felt the original Motion clearly set out the Council’s ambition and that there was no need for the addition. The Amendment was put to the vote and declared to be lost.

The original Motion was then put to the vote and declared to be passed and it was

            Resolved that –

            Runnymede Borough Council sets a target of 2030 to be net zero.