County net zero deadline in question

A senior county councillor has agreed with a recommendation that Powys County Council needs to “reassess” its 2030 Net Zero deadline.

At a meeting of Powys County Council’s Liberal Democrat/Labour Cabinet on Tuesday, February 11 councillors met to discuss the annual update to the Corporate and Strategic Equality plan.

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The updated draft of the plan which is also called: “Stronger, Fairer, Greener” covers the ambitions of the Liberal Democrat/Labour/Green minority administration’s up to 2027.

To meet Welsh Government legal deadlines the latest version needs to be published by April 1.

A joint meeting of all of the council’s scrutiny committees and Finance Panel held in confidential session had probed the draft document and produced 16 recommendations for Cabinet to take on board before they approve the plan.

This included a recommendation that: “The Net Zero timeline needed to be re-assessed as a priority.”

The report explains that the plan is “responding” to the dual climate and nature
emergencies and is now a central tenet to its strategic direction and staff are trying to make sure that it is “embedded” in the council’s work.

Cabinet member for a greener Powys, Cllr Jackie Charlton said: “Over the last two years we have looked at how we could address the climate emergency and how we deliver our services.”

She explained that the council was endeavouring think about the impact on the environment running through all of the council’s work as a “golden thread.”

Cllr Charlton said: “It is clear that changes have been needed, and this is slowly being implemented.

“I agree with the scrutiny recommendation that the timeline in achieving Net Zero needs to be reassessed.

“We have been working over the last couple of months at ways to address that  and look at ways we can re-assess or support what we believed is a challenging target to get to by 2030.

“We have to have a considered debate on what we need to do and the way forward.”

Cabinet agreed the draft report which is set to be published on the council’s website on April 1.

In the drive to tackle climate change the Welsh Government has put local authorities in the 2030 Net Zero vanguard – everyone else will be expected to be carbon neutral by 2050.

The hope is that the example from councils all across Wales will rub off on everyone else.

Last summer it was revealed that the council would need to spend £447million to achieve Net Zero requirements and reduce the council’s carbon footprint by 2030.

The council were asked why the plan was scrutinised by councillors in secret?

A council spokesman said: “The scrutiny of the plan was undertaken through a virtual exercise, which was a method raised by Audit Wales in their recommendation in 2018 and 2021, to allow reports to be scrutinised within an appropriate timescale.”