Agenda item

Councillor Keith Henson, Cabinet Member noted that the purpose of the report was to provide a progress update as to the actions set out within the Net Zero Action Plan. Reference was given to the background as outlined in the report.

Bethan Lloyd Davies explained that reports had been done as part of the Carbon Management Plan since 2017/18. In 2021/22, additional emissions sources had been added and therefore, significant work was needed to report on the emissions moving forward.

Members were provided with the opportunity to ask questions which were answered by Bethan Lloyd Davies and Rhodri Llwyd. The main points raised were as follows:

·       Concerns were raised by members that the grid capacity was not sufficient to serve the county and support the authority’s commitment to becoming Net Zero by 2030. It was noted that this issue was raised often in meetings and by neighbouring authorities too. National Grid and Scottish Power sat on boards working on local energy plans, however, they had limited budgets and would invest in places they deemed necessary.

·       Although employees commuted less with homeworking, concerns were raised that more houses would need to be heated during the day in the winter. It was noted that home-working emissions were accounted for in WG’s Emission Reporting.

·       Electricity generated from solar panels installed on council buildings was used by the buildings first with the remainder exported to the grid. If installations had a feed-in tariff payment, payments were made centrally to the authority. Generally, there was a 10-year payback on investments.

·       A land management review had been done on Canolfan Rheidol and Ysgol Bro Teifi by WG; the findings were yet to be received. Consideration would be given in due course to batteries to store excess energy.

·       It was noted that the aim of becoming Net Zero by 2030 was ambitious considering the situation financially. At present, WG would not penalise the authority for not achieving Net Zero by 2030, but this was the aim nationally for public sector bodies.

·       In terms of the authority’s fleet, converting vehicles to Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil (HVO) which was more expensive would be investigated along with hydrogen. It was noted that HVO was roughly 20% better than diesel but at present, by using the methodology provided by WG, there would only be a marginal improvement in the figures.

·       It was noted that tree planting would be considered long-term to offset carbon and for every tree cut on council-owned land due to Ash Dieback, 3 trees would be planted in their place. In terms of the figures, trees were accounted for under land-based emissions.

·       Other local authorities used the same system to collate data for reporting purposes. Hopefully next year, WG will provide an improved methodology to enable authorities to have a better understanding of the situation as at present, the more money that was spent, the more carbon that was generated.

·       The authority was only able to report on the council’s land holdings. Other bodies such as NRW included land in their ownership in their reports.

Following questions by the Members of the Committee, members agreed to note the progress in relation to actions set out within the Net-Zero Action Plan.