Dear Sir,

On 20th February, Durham County Council passed a ‘Climate Emergency’ motion, pledging to make both the Council, and County Durham, carbon neutral as quickly as possible.

In my role as DCC Cabinet Support: Economy & Regeneration, this falls within my purview and thus, last week, I attended the ‘Big Energy Summit’ conference in Warwick.

I was one of the speakers at the conference, and was able to tell delegates about the amazing work being done by DCC’s Low Carbon team, which has seen carbon emissions in both the Council and the County fall by 40% since 2010 (two years ahead of target).

THE PROBLEMS FACING US

I also shared some personal views about the task facing us. For all its success, DCC has still to cut or to offset 60,000 tonnes CO2e per annum, and County Durham as a whole needs to lose 2.5 million tonnes CO2 pa. Outside the Council, DCC has no powers of enforcement, will be losing EU funding, and faces a huge task facilitating the retrofit of domestic and industrial buildings, the creation of the necessary infrastructure for low-carbon energy & heating, and the decarbonising of traffic and farming. I wonder how many people realise that zero-carbon requires a move away from gas central heating? Or that the national grid would be unable to service a significant increase in the number of electric vehicles? Or that modern animal husbandry contributes perhaps a fifth of all our carbon emissions? Or that we do not have a sufficient workforce with the skills to install and maintain carbon neutral systems?

I also shared my personal agreement with the ‘Silesia Declaration’ that was passed at last year’s COP24 UN Climate Change Conference – that if we are to bring in carbon neutrality and renewable energy, we must do so without damaging the economy or losing jobs.

LESSONS FROM THE CONFERENCE

However, having got all the negatives off my chest, I came home FULL of ideas!! It was useful to be able to hear about the amazing work being done by Bristol, Warrington, Nottingham City and Dumfries & Galloway Councils. And I heard very helpful presentations by representatives from the government’s Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy and other experts on: EVs; data developments; how to plan and fund energy efficiency/low carbon projects; retrofit Trustmark; LEP Regional Hubs et al. If you are interested, I have posted my notes on all the presentations online here: http://bit.ly/APSE19

The DCC Climate Emergency motion requires a report to Full Council before September with the actions the Council will need to take to achieve a carbon neutral Council and County, so I will keep you updated on the progress of this ELE issue.

Cllr John D Clare

(DCC Cabinet Support: Economy & Regeneration)