Agenda and minutes

            Apologies were reported on behalf of Alderman McCoubrey and Councillors Hanvey, Long and Walsh.

            The minutes of the meeting of 10th April, 2025 were taken as read and signed as correct. It was reported that those minutes had been adopted by the Council at its meeting on 1st May, 2025.

            No declarations of interest were recorded.

            Together, the Climate Commissioner and the Monitoring, Learning and Reporting Officer presented the undernoted report to the Committee:

“1.0      Purpose of Report/Summary of Main Issues

1.1       To present the draft Climate Action Plan to members and seek approval for the short-term actions in the Climate Action Plan to be adopted via the Corporate Annual Delivery Plan for 2024-25.  The actions for subsequent years will be brought forward for approval in line with the annual financial planning and corporate planning cycle.

2.0       Recommendation

2.1       The Committee is requested to:

                                          I.     Note the purpose of the plan - to close the gap between BCC’s current climate action and its ambition to be a net zero and resilient Council as well as its five themes: Tools for Transition, Adaptation, Energy and Buildings, Transport and Waste Management;

                                         II.     Note that ‘Commencing the delivery of the Council Corporate Climate Action Plan to increase the climate resilience of Council assets and services and progress towards Council net zero emissions’ is a key action in the Council’s Performance Improvement Plan;

                                       III.     Note that all of the short-term actions in the CAP have been mainstreamed into the draft Corporate Annual Delivery Plan for 2024-25;

                                       IV.     Note that the adoption of the Climate Action Plan will enable the Council to fulfil its legal obligations under the Public Body Reporting requirements (under the NI Climate Change Act), specifically in preparing the Mitigation report for submission to DAERA in Oct 2025 and the Adaptation report in March 2026;

                                        V.     Note that the Climate data platform will collate all of the Council’s climate data and track delivery of the Climate Action Plan which will enable CMT to obtain regular progress reports and demonstrate progress externally to DAERA;

                                       VI.     Note the proposed governance arrangements via the Climate and City Resilience Committee; and

                                     VII.     Provide approval for the short-term actions in the Climate Action Plan to be adopted via the Corporate Annual Delivery Plan for 2024-25 and note that the actions for subsequent years will be brought forward for approval in line with the annual financial planning and corporate planning cycle.

2.2       Background

            The work started in 2021 with an initial analysis of the Council’s scope 1 and 2 emissions followed by the commissioning of KPMG to undertake a Climate Risk Assessment (in 2023). This work combined with a series of workshops led by KPMG informed the development of an initial draft Climate Action Plan. An internal review of the plan by the climate team and further consultation with departments has resulted in the revised draft plan included in this report.

2.3       Purpose of the Climate Action Plan (CAP)

            The purpose of the plan is to close the gap between BCC’s current climate action and its ambition to be a net zero and resilient Council. It includes actions to be delivered in the short term (by 2025), medium term (by 2030) and longer term (2030+). The actions are grouped under five themes:

·        Tools for Transition

·        Adaptation

·        Energy and Buildings

·        Transport

·        Waste Management

2.4       Alignment  ...  view the full minutes text for item 2.

            The Committee noted that the item had been withdrawn from the agenda as representatives from Sustrans had advised that they could no longer attend the meeting.