[To receive an update from Cllr Barbara McGarrity QN, Member Champion for Climate Change.]
Minutes:
The Board welcomed Cllr Barbara McGarrity to the meeting. Cllr McGarrity stated that as soon as she was appointed to the role of Member Champion for Climate Change that the public were already starting to contact her by the end of the day. The public interest highlighted how concerned people and communities were about climate change. Cllr McGarrity stated that young people appeared to be especially concerned as evidenced by demonstrations being held outside of schools.
Cllr McGarrity stated that she had been invited to speak at the South West Labour Group where questions had been very varied. An event had also been held at St Peter’s Church which had been an excellent experience. Cllr McGarrity had given a talk which had been very well attended and informative questions had been asked such as what food we should eat and whether solar panels were a good option. Other events were in the pipeline.
Cllr McGarrity explained that she also had a seat on the West Midlands Consortium Board on Climate Change and that the Association for Public Service Excellence (APSE) were going to get involved in this. Cllr McGarrity noted that Scotland appeared to be leading on climate change at the moment.
One area that was of particular interest to Cllr McGarrity was the issue of recycling centres and whether these could be brought inhouse. This might be a future piece of work for scrutiny as it would be useful to see what other areas were doing. Everyone had a part to play in managing climate change.
The Director for City Environment informed the Board that the Council had made a climate change pledge which was now on the website and had been initially presented by the Youth Council at Full Council. The Director stated that it was vital to ensure that young people were fully engaged in what they were doing and gave an example of the webpage which also enabled people to work out their carbon footprint. The Pledge was all about the small things and contained an action plan and a number of indicators for each directorate. Consultation was still ongoing, and the Leader and Council had adopted a citizens assembly approach to bring in a small group of people with a vested interest in climate change.
The Board thanked Cllr McGarrity and noted that the brief associated with climate change was huge and complex.
Cllr McGarrity agreed and stated that she had originally tried to set objectives, but everything had just come at once and there were so many things that it was impossible to embrace all of it but that it was vital to try to address as many areas as possible. Cllr McGarrity stated that she was the Council’s Tree Champion which in itself was a huge responsibility but that she was working with other parts of the Council on this and hoped that with further discussions there would be more clarity as to the way forward. The Director stated that the Council had already agreed the climate change key priorities which were now on the website awaiting indicators and that Cllr McGarrity might take responsibility for some of these. The Director stated that it was also important to make sure that there were businesses that could deliver the green initiatives.
The Board queried whether it might be best to look internally first at what they as elected members could do to reduce their carbon footprints and how we tested for clean air. One area for consideration might be moving to completely paperless meetings and to stop printing any copies of agendas.
The Board agreed that they would support this going forward by ensuring that where appropriate, all reports addressed the green agenda.
The Board congratulated Cllr McGarrity on her work to date and for taking on such a huge task.
Resolved: That the update be noted.