A recently published progress report has revealed how well Dorset Council is performing in its efforts to tackle the Climate and Ecological Emergency (CEE).
Dorset Council declared a CEE in May 2019 and, following extensive development and consultation, their Climate and Ecological Emergency Strategy (CEES) and action plan was adopted by Full Council last July, with an agreement to report progress twice a year.
The CEES is a long-term strategy which sets out 41 objectives under nine topic headings. It sets carbon targets and identifies key areas where the council can both reduce its own carbon footprint and support the whole of Dorset to become carbon neutral.
Key headlines from the progress report include (but are not limited to): –
- Significant budget commitment by Dorset Council, with £10 million capital climate change budget and over £50 million in external funding to support activities that address the CEE
- Over 40 solar panel arrays installed on schools and other council-owned buildings, with an additional 50 arrays due for installation shortly
- Estimated investment through the Dorset County Pension Fund in high carbon activities reduced from £128 million to £41 million since 2019 (1.2% of total investment)
- Low Carbon Dorset programme awarded £5.4 million grants to businesses wishing to go greener. Projects should lead to £16.1m of investment in low-carbon projects in Dorset and an annual reduction of 9,400 tonnes of carbon
- 60% waste recycling achieved. Dorset Council is now the eighth best performing council in England and the third best unitary council in England for recycling and composting
- Pro-active lobbying of Government for powers and funding to support strategy delivery through direct representation to government, letters to, and lobbying of, MPs and representation through national groups
- Majority of streetlights upgraded to efficient lighting
- Strategy under development to shift Council vehicle fleet away from use of fossil fuels, with trials r electric vehicles (e.g., road sweepers and refuse vehicles) and Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil fuel for use in heavy vehicles
- Use of primary highway surfacing material reduced by 30%, replaced with recycled products. 15% of surfacing materials made of material recovered from Dorset’s former roads
- Expanded our Cut and Collect practices on roadside verges to cover more areas of Dorset. Space management for biodiversity benefit increased by 350km2
- 42 electric vehicle charging sockets/bays installed at 21 locations. Next phase to deliver 51 more underway
- Healthy Homes Dorset supported over 130 homes with energy efficiency and improvement measures, with many more receiving Green Homes Grants to install insulation, ventilation, and solar panels
- Dorset Green H2 project to install 5MW solar farm and electrolyser to produce green hydrogen.
The progress report outlines the Council’s key progress, but also includes the next steps to be taken under each of the nine topics. The full progress report can be found on the Dorset Council website.
Cllr Ray Bryan, Dorset Council’s Portfolio Holder for Highways, Travel and Environment, said:
“It’s important to make sure everyone is kept up to date with how we’re getting on delivering our Climate and Ecological Emergency Strategy and action plan, and I’m especially pleased that Dorset residents will be able to see that these works are gaining real momentum now.
As a local authority, we must deal with many competing priorities, but our commitment to delivering on our CEES ambitions remains steadfast. Much has already been delivered, both by Dorset Council directly but also working with a multitude of partners. There is no one single point of success or failure defining whether we will be successful; the journey to a decarbonised Dorset will involve us all.
We will continue to work towards our goal to become a carbon-neutral council and putting in place the necessary actions and partnerships to accelerate the journey towards a carbon neutral Dorset. I welcome the opportunity to discuss with all interested parties what their views are on concrete steps that can realistically help us accelerate our ambitions, balancing the social and economic needs of all residents, especially the most vulnerable. I am absolutely committed to making Dorset the best in class, and I know that we have all of the ingenuity, passion and capabilities to achieve this.”
Climate campaigners have criticised the council for not (in their view) having done enough to address the climate and ecological emergency. It is good to see that we are able to set the record straight through the progress report. What I like in particular is that this is not only about what the council is doing to reduce the direct carbon footprint of the services we deliver. It is also about our work to help, encourage and support businesses and residents to reduce their carbon footprints. This is about helping us all on the journey to become carbon neutral and I am proud to work for a council that is doing so much.
All this progress but gains overwhelmed by municipal waste collected by you and sent for incineration
Sorry Pete, but we strongly disagree. We send less unrecyclable waste to be incinerated than most councils because we recycle so much of it. What else could we do with it? Certainly not landfill, which is costly and even worse for the environment. The best way to deal with unrecyclable waste is to reduce it at point of production, but until that happens we have a statutory duty to deal with it and Energy from Waste incineration is currently the best option – James
As you know James, electricity generated by incineration of residual waste is far more carbon intensive than the increasingly decarbonised grid. The option to incinerate municipal waste is something you control but the associated emissions haven’t been included in your 2040 target.
Agree with all those points Pete, but the fact remains that no council can recycle everything they collect and we are legally responsible for dealing with waste produced by Dorset households. We are actively lobbying government for increased manufacturer responsibility to help deal with some of the problem at source, but in the meantime if you have a better suggestion for an environmentally and financially sustainable means of processing non-recyclable waste, we’d be interested to hear it – James
James, I take you back to my original comment. You are spending millions of taxpayer’s money to put PV panels etc on your buildings (all good stuff) while transporting and then incinerating waste in huge quantities in other buildings. And you don’t include incineration emissions in your 2040 target.
We can only set targets for the things we are responsible for. Simply put, we are not responsible for the production of non-recyclable household waste, but we are responsible for dealing with it. The only way we can deal with non-recyclable waste, until such time measures are taken to reduce or prohibit its production, is to burn it or bury it – James
I’m disappointed to see that some of this work is being financed by PFI deals rather than council income, it would be helpful to see the sources and cost of finance for the work being done.
Hi Neil,
Much of this work is being funded through National government via the Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme administered by SALIX or by the Low Carbon Dorset programme funded by the last available funds from the EU ERDF scheme. Dorset Council worked hard to secure these sources of external funding and were very successful in doing so compared to many other councils. Which PFI initiatives are you thinking of especially? The Low Carbon Dorset programme is not PFI but it does give grants to SMEs and Community organisations to help them decarbonise as well as helping public sector organisations including the council itself to fund improvements at a max 40% intervention rate meaning that the council had to find the 60% from elsewhere. PSDS is 100% funded so not a PFI either.
Please have a read of https://news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk/2021/11/08/how-dorset-council-is-spending-19m-to-make-our-buildings-greener-and-cleaner/ – James
How can you reach the carbon neutral target when whole estates of new housing ( as at Blandford) are going up with not a solar panel in sight? Not only should all council-owned roofs sport them, but permission for new-builds should include them. In South Korea, cycle lanes are designed to be roofed and covered by solar panels.
The public needs to know about the threats to their well-being as harvests fail and systems break down. Oceans are overheating, overfished, acidifying. Water,soils and air- all filthy, all polluted. Humans are turning into plastic bags.
Where is the Salvage and Survive public information programme?
Covid, conflict and climate are fuelling the fragility of the global food supply chain. We should all be warned about triggering climate collapse and the myriad ways we can prevent it. We all need Mother Nature but she’s being sacrificed to the fossil fuel industry.
Please engage the public to decarbonise at speed and scale, transform the pension funds from deadly energies and incentivise renewables, batteries, insulation, saving energy and changing the way we do things. Before, not after, systems collapse. We still need zillions of species including pollinators.
No more glyphosate nor selling peat thanks Dorset.
Well done Dorset Council however when I see all the new houses that have had DCC planning permission , particularly around Wimborne, there seem to be NONE that have solar panels . They could have had them installed by the developer at the insistence of DCC planning approval – why not???
Recycling is a key component of the fight against climate change. So why can’t Dorset Council recycle foil (BCP can) and glazed cartons (BCP can). And why do we have to lug our glass out in a leaky non-wheely plastic box with a blowaway lid and drainage holes in the wrong places (BCP doesn’t do this)?
COULD DO BETTER.
While we accept there’s always room for improvement in our kerbside services, we should also point out that Dorset Council has a higher recycling rate (60%) than BCP (51%) – James
What really worries me and has done from the start of covid, is the use of plastic in hospitals. Is anyone addressing the use and disposal of plastic aprons, gloves, masks, syringes etc? (Could some form of paper aprons be substituted? ) Where do they all end up?
I heartily agree. Also the plastic used in doctors’ surgeries. Nurses using a new pair of plastic gloves for every patient. All very necessary of course but is it being dealt with environmentally?
Linda.