Bucks Council's climate change strategy judged 'inadequate'

Buckinghamshire Council’s climate action plan has scored just 35% in a recent assessment undertaken by Climate Emergency UK (CE UK), placing it tied 111th out of the 178 council plans interrogated.

CE UK, a not-for-profit cooperative which works with councils and residents to share best practices regarding what can be done to tackle the climate emergency, assessed all the climate action plans published online by UK councils after 2015 and before 20 September 2021.

Not all councils publish their plans but it does not necessarily mean they aren’t doing anything.

Criteria for the CE UK scorecard include considerations such as whether climate actions are costed, if the actions are assigned to specific teams, and if clear goals are set. Buckinghamshire Council’s total score landed it in the bottom 38%.

You can see the full list of council scores here: https://councilclimatescorecards.uk

Ed Gemmell, an Independent Buckinghamshire Councillor and Managing Director of Scientists Warning Europe, a national environmental charity, told Bucks Radio: “For me this recent survey of council plans lays bare the inadequacy of Buckinghamshire Council’s so-called climate change strategy.

“45 of the 60 so-called actions under the strategy are actually not actions at all – they all refer to exploring, establishing, endeavouring, studying, assessing, investigating or monitoring but not to action. Only a small number of them refer to implementing or improving.”

Responding to the CE UK scorecard, Councillor Peter Strachan, Buckinghamshire Council’s Cabinet Member for Climate Change and Environment said: “Tackling Climate Change is a top priority for us at Buckinghamshire Council.

“We aren’t party to how the scores were arrived at, but we are certain our Climate Change and Air Quality Strategy will see us reach our target of net-zero carbon emissions for Buckinghamshire by 2050.

“We have carefully costed everything out and so we know what we are proposing is both realistic and achievable and we are on track for our earlier milestones such as a reduction of 75% for the Council’s own emissions by 2030.

“Actions we are already taking as part of our Climate Change and Air Quality Strategy include planting over half a million trees in Buckinghamshire – one for every resident - improving infrastructure for electric vehicles, walking and cycling, generating more renewable energy and improving energy efficiency. We have set aside a £5m Climate Change Fund.”

We asked Mr Gemmell about these measures and he told us: “It’s a complete joke for Peter Strachan to say climate change is a top priority and point out the council aims to reduce its own emissions by 75% by 2030. Hundreds of councils in the country, including London and COP26 hosts, Glasgow, have 2030 net zero targets for their whole community.”

The United Nations via its Conference of the Parties (COP) has set a target of net zero carbon emissions for all countries by 2050, though many climate scientists have been voicing concerns for a while that this will be too late.

Isaac Beaver from CE UK said: "Local authorities can help to deliver 30% of the cuts in carbon emissions needed to get to net zero, according to the 6th UK Carbon Budget published a year ago, so it is vital that councils do as much as they can.

"While we understand that councils need much more support and funding from National Government, and have been stretched by responding to the pandemic, the fact that some councils have developed well thought out, costed and ambitious plans, shows that it is possible."

You can visit the Scientists Warning Europe here: https://www.scientistswarningeurope.org.uk/