Concerns RBWM is 'derelict in its duty' to monitor climate targets

A Royal Borough group dedicated to addressing the climate emergency has raised concerns about how the council is measuring its progress – and the impact this is having.

RBWM Climate Emergency Coalition (CEC) is concerned that, due to lack of reporting, the council has no means of knowing what work it needs to do to achieve net-zero by 2050.

The council’s Environment and Climate Strategy, adopted in 2020, includes this net-zero goal, and an action plan for addressing various environmental aspects, such as energy and transport.

A sustainability and climate team within the council reports to an overview and scrutiny panel to analyse its activities – in theory.

So far though, it has not brought much to the panel.

At a place overview and scrutiny meeting on Tuesday, councillors received only a broad overview and heard that ‘the final impact report’ is set for June.

CEC is unhappy with this. They say scrutiny is ‘long overdue’, especially since the last progress report was in April 2022.

Sarah Bowden of CEC said: “To have had one progress report within that period is not sufficient. I would say the council has been derelict in its duties to monitor its own targets.”

The climate strategy spans five years, 2020 to 2025. Afterwards, it is set to be replaced with ‘refreshed’ one. The timescale raises its own concerns for CEC.

“This report was mentioned at a meeting back in October of last year. An [eight-month wait] in a five-year strategy just seems wrong,” said Sarah.

She feels more forcefulness is required from the O&S panel.

“If scrutiny is being done properly, they should be pushing for answers by a specific date,” she said. “They should not be setting their meeting dates by when that team is able to produce a report.”

Sarah questions how the council can know it is taking the right actions without regular reports.

“It’s like if you’re training for a marathon. If you’re not monitoring the distance you’re travelling, how do you know if you’re ever going to complete the marathon?” Sarah said.

“My concern is, if [after five years] the report shows that you’ve actually only managed 20 per cent [of your target], you’ve lost a really important period of time. With this, every year matters.”

These concerns were echoed by Dave Scarbrough, also of CEC, at the place meeting.

He reminded the panel that it was written in a prior meeting’s minutes that O&S should review progress every six months.

Some councillors on the panel also expressed concerns that the can was being kicked down the road.

They suggested challenging the lack of immediacy within the wider council on climate matters.

Cllr Gary Reeves, (Lib Dem, Cox Green) said: “The risk factor is much higher than this council is currently perceiving it to be.”

Speaking to the Advertiser, Cllr Karen Davies, cabinet member for climate change and biodiversity, said that although the report itself may not have come to scrutiny, key elements of it have been discussed in other meetings.

Looking at carbon emissions and recycling rates among other maters on a quarterly basis, his has helped the borough keep track of its progress.

The new strategy will be informed by the findings of the report.

“It’s fair to say things have moved on a lot in five years,” Cllr Davies said.

“Five years ago, the Borough really hadn’t done anything with climate and environment work. We’re coming to it from a much stronger position now.”

A council spokesperson, said:

“We’ve made progress in the last two years to create a cleaner, greener borough, including leading the development of Berkshire’s Nature Recovery Strategy, adopting ambitious planning guidance to support our commitment to sustainable development, investing significantly in driving down carbon emissions and progressing the Climate Partnership.

“While we published our last update report in August 2023, we have regularly reported our progress as part of our Quarterly Assurance Report and will share our impact report in May.”