COMMUNITIES, HOUSING & ENVIRONMENT COMMITTEE				15 September 2015
Is the final decision on the recommendations in this report to be made at this meeting?					Yes
Greenhouse Gas Emissions Reports
Final Decision-Maker		Communities, Housing & Environment Committee
Lead Director or Head of Service		John Littlemore Head of Housing & Community Services
Lead Officer and Report Author		Dr Stuart Maxwell
Classification		Non-exempt
Wards affected		All
This report makes the following recommendations to the final decision-maker:
1.    The Committee agrees that the Greenhouse Gas Emissions Reports attached as Appendix A and Appendix B can be published on the Maidstone Borough Council website, and a hyperlink to the Report can be sent to the Department for Energy and Climate Change.
This report relates to the following corporate priorities:
·         Keeping Maidstone an attractive place for all
Timetable
Meeting			Date
Corporate Leadership Team
Policy and Resources Committee
Council
Other Committee

Greenhouse Gas Emissions Report

 

1.                        PURPOSE OF REPORT AND EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

 

1.1    All Local Authorities are requested by Central Government to publish details of the[DE1]  greenhouse gas emissions from their estate and operations. Reports detailing the Council’s greenhouse gas emissions have been produced for the 2013/14 and 2014/15 financial years.

 

1.2    The main sources of Greenhouse Gases are the use of gas and electricity at the Council’s property, business transport and travel on the Council’s behalf

 

1.3    The committee is asked to approve the reports and agree that they can be published on the Council’s website and that a link to the relevant webpage will be sent to the Department of Energy and Climate Change.

 

 

2.                        INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND

 

2.1    This report concerns Maidstone Borough Council’s greenhouse gas emissions for the 2013/14 and the 2014/15 financial years.

 

2.2    Central Government recognises the pivotal role that Local Councils have in tackling climate change. In 2011, Greg Barker MP, the then Minister for Climate Change, wrote to the Chief Executives of all Local Councils in England requesting that they measure and report their Greenhouse Gas emissions, from their own estate and operations (previously NI185). In June 2013, the Minister wrote again to all Local Authority Chief Executives, requesting them to publish their data for 2013/14.

 

2.4    Since 2009/10, Local Authorities have been asked to publish the information about their emissions on their website, and send a hyperlink to the data to the Department of Energy and Climate Change.

 

2.5    In 2009, MBC produced a Carbon Management Plan, which set the target of reducing the greenhouse gas emissions associated with its estate and operations by 20% by 2014/15, from the 2008/09 baseline level. The 2008/09 baseline level was 5872 tonnes CO₂e, therefore the target level to be achieved by 2014/15 was 4698 tonnes CO₂ equivalent.

 

2.6    The Carbon Management Plan also set a target of saving a cumulative total of 5,295 tonnes CO₂e, during its lifetime, (2008/09 to 2014/15). This target, however, assumes that there if nothing were done, the CO₂ emissions would not remain constant, but would in fact increase.  The projected increase is 1075 tonnes CO₂e, based on an assumed annual increase of 0.7% in demand for Council services.

 

2.7    In 2013/14 MBC’s carbon emissions were reduced to 4791 tonnes per annum of CO₂e which was an 18.4% reduction from baseline.  The cumulative reduction since 2008/09 was 3239 tonnes CO₂e[DE2] .

 

2.8    In 2014/15 MBC’s carbon emissions increased from 4791 tonnes to 4998 tonnes, which was a 4.3% increase on the 2013/14 year, and represented a reduction from the baseline year of 14.9%. The primary cause of this unexpected increase it thought to be a break down of the Combined Heat and Power (CHP) plant at Mote Park Leisure Centre which resulted in a large increase in electricity consumption[DE3] . This fault is now rectified.

 

2.9    This means that CO₂ emissions have been reduced by a cumulative total of 4081 tonnes since the 2008/09 baseline year. If the assumed increase described in 2.6 is factored in, the cumulative reduction becomes 5056 tonnes CO₂e, compared with the target of 5295 tonnes CO₂e.

 

 

 

 

3.                        AVAILABLE OPTIONS

 

3.1      The Council could publish the attached reports via its website and send a link to the reports to DECC in compliance with the requests of the Minister for Climate Change in June 2013.

 

3.2      The Council could disregard the Minister’s request and not publish the attached reports.

 

 

4.         PREFERRED OPTION AND REASONS FOR RECOMMENDATIONS

 

4.1      The preferred option is for the Council to choose publish the attached reports on its website and send a link to the report to DECC.

 

4.2      Producing and publishing a GHG report is not a statutory requirement, but it does form part of the Department of Communities and Local Government (DCLG) single data list which sets out all of the data requirements that central government has of local government, and so is expected to be reported.

 

4.3    Any sanction for not providing data requested on the DCLG single data list is likely to be reputational as DECC’s collation of Local Authority data into one place will clearly show which Local Authorities have not complied with the requirement.

 

5.        CONSULTATION RESULTS AND PREVIOUS COMMITTEE FEEDBACK

 

5.1    No consultation has been undertaken, and no consultation is required. The report is factual in nature and does not form part of any policy change.

 

5.2    The report has not previously been submitted to the committee.

 

 

 

 

 

 

6.        NEXT STEPS: COMMUNICATION AND IMPLEMENTATION OF THE DECISION

 

6.1         The following timetable is proposed:

 

Action	Start	End
The CH& E Committee approves the draft themes for consultation		16/06/2015
Consultation period commences	22/06/2015	25/09/2015
Report back to CH&E Committee with consultation response incorporated into draft Strategy		13/10/2015
Strategy approved, implementation commences	January 2016	March 2021

 

 

 

7.        CROSS-CUTTING ISSUES AND IMPLICATIONS

 

 

Issue	Implications	Sign-off
Impact on Corporate Priorities	Great Place.  Demonstrates that MBC is taking practical steps to reduce its own carbon emissions.	John Littlemore
Risk Management	There is small reputational risk of publishing the report as it shows that MBC has not completely reached its own carbon reduction target.  However there is a greater risk in being identified as having not complied with the minister’s request.	John Littlemore
Financial	Reducing carbon emissions results in lower expenditure on energy.	Paul Riley
Staffing	None	John Littlemore
Legal	None	Estelle Culligan, Deputy Head f Legal Partnership
Equality Impact Needs Assessment	Not required.	Clare Wood, Policy & Information Officer
Environmental/Sustainable Development	Demonstrates the council’s commitment to taking practical steps to reduce its own carbon emissions.  Also highlights that more work could be done in this area although most factors contributing to missing the target are beyond MBC direct control.	Head of Housing & Community Services
Community Safety	None	John Littlemore
Human Rights Act	None	John Littlemore
Procurement	Potential to highlight need to give greater emphasis to carbon emissions in procurement of services and equipment.	John Littlemore/Paul Riley
Asset Management	Main cause of missed target was broken CHP unit in leisure centre. Highlights that prompt action in such cases is important in meeting carbon emission targets.	John Littlemore

 

8.         REPORT APPENDICES

 

The following documents are to be published with this report and form part of the report:

·           Appendix A Maidstone Borough Council Greenhouse Gas Emissions Report 2013-14

·           Appendix B Maidstone Borough Council Greenhouse Gas Emissions Report 2014-15

 

 

 

9.         BACKGROUND PAPERS

 

 

Maidstone Borough Council Carbon Management Plan

 

http://dynamic.maidstone.gov.uk/pdf/MBC%20Carbon%20Management%20Plan.pdf