Decision details

The purpose of the report is to:

1) seek Cabinet endorsement of a ‘Peterborough City Council Carbon Management Action Plan’ (Council-CMAP) and seek Cabinet approval to recommend the Council-CMAP to Council. 

2) seek Cabinet endorsement to commence a period of public engagement to ascertain actions that should be included within a new City-wide Carbon Management Action Plan which will be presented to Council in December 2021. 

3) support the work of the Climate Change Cross Party Working Group to identify mechanisms to enable the Council to significantly increase tree canopy cover across the city over the next ten years and to present detailed proposals within a maximum of 12 months detailing how this can be achieved. 

Cabinet considered the report and RESOLVED to:  

1. Endorse the Council’s Carbon Management Action Plan (CMAP) and recommends to Council that it adopts the Council-CMAP at its meeting on 3 March 2021.  
2. Note the Council’s intention to commence a period of public engagement to ascertain actions that should be included within a City-wide Carbon Management Action Plan which will be presented to Council by December 2021.  
3. Support the work of the Climate Change Cross Party Working Group to identify mechanisms to enable the Council to significantly increase tree canopy cover across the city over the next ten years and to present detailed proposals within a maximum 12 months detailing how this can be achieved.    
4. Recommend to Council that delegation be given to the Executive Director for Place and Economy to undertake any presentational, factual or other minor amendments to the documents associated with this report prior to publication, provided such amendments do not materially amend the content of the documents.  
5. Approve the use of earmarked reserves set up in the 2021 Budget to fund £100,000 of project support for climate change initiatives. 

The Council has previously committed to the actions of preparing an updated Council-CMAP and preparing a City-CMAP. Council requested that officers and the cross-party Climate Change working group present an updated tree planting target.  

The document for consideration has been developed by officers, working with the Member Working Group, and has taken account of reasonable and viable options for the council to cut its carbon emissions. 

Council-CMAP 

The option of not preparing a Council Carbon Management Action Plan is dismissed, because Council has already committed in principle to its preparation. Alternative content within the Action Plan could have been prepared and recommended, which could have committed more, less or different projects to reduce the council’s carbon emissions. However, in order to start to reduce our emissions to net-zero by 2030, yet take account of the resources available, the content of the action plan is deemed a reasonable and practical set of actions, especially for the next 12 months. 

Draft City-CMAP 

The option of not preparing a City-wide Carbon Management Action Plan is dismissed, because Council has already committed to its preparation. 

An alternative option would be to present a draft plan to Council for consideration but this has been ruled out in favour of prioritising public engagement to ensure that the emerging plan captures the views of local people.   

Trees Motion 

Whilst it is feasibly possible to present a revised target there has not been sufficient time to comprehensively undertake this work and therefore it is recommended that this is undertaken before a target is presented.  

None.

Peterborough City Council’s declaration of a climate emergency, July 2019 

Council-CMAP, March 2020 

Trees Motion, October 2020