Agenda item

Report of the Director of Climate Change, Environment and Transport (CET/23/45) on the proposed consultation response on the draft Devon, Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Climate Adaptation Strategy, attached.

An Impact Assessment has also been prepared for the attention of Members at this meeting. It is available on the website at Climate Adaptation Strategy - Impact Assessment and is also attached.

RESOLVED that the proposed consultation response at Section 3 from Devon County Council to the Devon Climate Emergency partnership on the draft Devon, Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Climate Adaptation Strategy be approved.

(Councillors Brazil and Whitton attended in accordance with Standing Order 25(2) and spoke to this item).

The Cabinet considered the Report of the Director of Climate Change, Environment and Transport (CET/23/45) outlining a proposed consultation response on the draft Devon, Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Climate Adaptation Strategy, circulated prior to the meeting in accordance with regulation 7(4) of the Local Authorities (Executive Arrangements) (Meetings and Access to Information) (England) Regulations 2012.

The Council (DCC) had declared a climate emergency and was a founding partner and principal funder of the Devon Climate Emergency (DCE) initiative. In signing the Devon Climate Declaration, the Council had committed to working with partners to understand the near-term and future risks arising from climate change to plan for how infrastructure, public services and communities would have to adapt. The Devon, Cornwall, and Isles of Scilly (DCIoS) Climate Impacts Group (CIG), currently chaired by the Environment Agency and coordinated by the Council, was formed in 2019 in response to declarations of climate emergency across the three areas and it had prepared the draft DCIoS Climate Adaptation Strategy.

It was a strategic-level document, comprising three sections:

1.    A Climate Change Risk and Opportunity Assessment (CCRA) split by sector - natural environment, infrastructure, health and built environment, business and industry, and cross-cutting risks.

2.    A Strategic Adaptation Plan.

3.    An Action Plan.

The full document could be viewed at https://www.climateresilient-dcios.org.uk/#adaptation-strategy

The draft Adaptation Strategy had been open for public consultation during May and June 2023 and the final version would be published in the Autumn and partner organisations subsequently invited to endorse it.

The proposed consultation response was outlined at paragraph 3. The Strategy showed that climate change would have far reaching and profound implications for how places functioned, were planned, how they felt and how behaviours needed to change.

The Authority noted and agreed with the five main impact themes identified by the assessment, which each contributed to a series of related risks described more fully in the Strategy. These were:

·       River and surface water flooding

·       Sea level rise (coastal flooding and erosion)

·       Reduced water availability (drought conditions)

·       Temperature change and extreme heat/cold

·       Cascading impacts

The Authority supported the draft Strategy and would do what it could to implement relevant actions within its areas of responsibility and that success would require a collaborative approach involving Government departments and agencies, transport and utility providers, local businesses, communities and individuals.

The Cabinet noted that the Climate Change Standing Overview Group of the Corporate Infrastructure and Regulatory Services Scrutiny Committee had contributed to the comments on points of detail passed to the DCE secretariat.

An Impact Assessment had also been prepared and was available on the website at Climate Adaptation Strategy - Impact Assessment. This highlighted that Climate change would affect everybody in the County, and it would affect people less able to adapt the most. The Strategy included a more detailed commentary on people most vulnerable to climate change but implementing the Strategy to improve resilience would require changes to the way the Authority’s services were provided, which had the potential to impact negatively and positively on service users depending on the specifics of the proposals once developed, thereby requiring their own impact assessment to consider their effect on equality characteristics.

In summary, the Strategy showed that climate change would have far reaching and profound implications. The Council looked forward to continuing the formal collaboration with partners on the Devon Climate Emergency Response Group and working in partnership with everyone to continue the reduction of Devon’s greenhouse gas emissions and the required adaptation to the inevitable impacts of climate change.

The matter having been debated and the options and alternatives and other relevant factors (e.g. financial, sustainability and carbon impact, risk management, equality and legal considerations and alignment with the Council’s Strategic Plan) set out in the Director’s Report having been considered:

it was MOVED by Councillor Davis, SECONDED by Councillor Hart, and

RESOLVED that the proposed consultation response at Section 3 from Devon County Council to the Devon Climate Emergency partnership on the draft Devon, Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Climate Adaptation Strategy be approved.