Blow for Powys council's Net Zero ambition as carbon emissions went up last year

At a meeting of the council’s Economy, Residents and Communities scrutiny committee on Wednesday, July 9 councillors received an update on the work being done by the council to address the climate emergency.

The report included the council’s progress towards becoming a Net Zero council by 2030.

All local authorities in Wales are expected to hit this target.

The report shows that carbon emissions that are logged under the Welsh Government carbon accounts framework for the 2023/2024 financial year were 90,201,961 kg CO2e which is an increase of 4,499,510 kg CO2e on the 85,773,255 kg CO2e reported for 2022/2023.

Committee chairwoman Councillor Angela Davies (Liberal Democrat) said: “A huge amount of work has been done so it’s a little bit disappointing to see that the council’s emissions actually went up and not down.”

She wondered whether taking out carbon emissions from school transport and supply chain emissions: “what would that figure look like?”

Data shows that carbon emissions from the supply chain used by the council accounted for 73.8 per cent of carbon emissions last year,

Cabinet member for climate change and de-carbonisation, Councillor Jackie Charlton said that the Welsh Government decide what is included in the council’s carbon accounts.

Cllr Charlton “Whatever we are doing is making a difference and we can see that, but it’s not actually reducing the carbon emissions to where they need to be and that’s not unique to use, we’re doing our bit

Head of economy and climate, Daniel Burgess added that work was being done to see if the council could claim some “energy procurement” schemes such as the council’s electric vehicles fleet as a saving against the carbon account.

Mr Burgess said: “We do need conversations on what does not doing anything look like.

“We’ve spoken about the impacts of flooding and modelling for rainfall in the hills of Mid Wales for the next 20 to 60 years show that those flooding events are going to become more frequent.”

He added in a “route-map” to net zero that the council is working on there will options that show what an “aggressive” approach to hit the target looks like and the cost implications to do this.

Cllr Davies pointed out that “fleet and business travel” growth had also been noted as a reason for the increase.

“I’m curious what is that growth, is that compared to a covid year,” asked Cllr Davies.

Mr Burgess explained that the return of some council staff to work in offices had been reflected in the increase.

The committee noted the report which will go before a meeting of the Liberal Democrat/Labour cabinet on Tuesday, July 15.

The council’s achievements noted in the report included:

•  3,600 LED light fixtures installed.

•  £635,000 of funding for Electric Vehicle infrastructure found for council depot

•  Improved energy efficiency in over 1,800 council properties.

• Funding secured to install LED lighting in Council and school buildings with an estimated saving of over £230,000 a year from 2026/27.