To receive any announcements from the chair and general housekeeping matters.
Minutes:
Last week’s news made sobering reading.
The horrific Australian fires during our winter are being replicated in West Coast America. Climate fires are burning out of control in Oregon, California, and Washington State. Half a million people have fled their homes in Oregon, that is 10% of the population. Whole towns have been destroyed. San Francisco at midday is as dark as dusk as the orange smoke-filled air lets through a smidgen of sunlight.
A report in the esteemed journal Nature, not renowned for its radicalism, has given evidence that global heating is accelerating beyond the cautious projections of scientists. We now expect to reach 1.5ºC heating by 2030 rather than 2040. Tipping points are being reached which spirals heating out of control.
The updated Living Planet Index was also released last week by WWF and the London Zoological Society (ZSL). The collapse of nature is gaining apace. Two years ago the world had lost 60% of animals relative to 1970. That is now 80%.
David Attenborough presented a climate documentary last night. He says “We are facing a man-made disaster on a global scale. In the 20 years since I first started talking about the impact of climate change, conditions have changed far faster than I ever imagined. If we have not taken dramatic action within the next decade, we could face irreversible damage to the natural world, and the collapse of our societies. If we better understand the threat, the more likely it is that we can avoid such a catastrophic future.”
Residents of South Oxfordshire are highly aware of this. Nine hundred and thirty, an unprecedented number, responded to the consultation on our draft Corporate Plan. Of the themes put forward, action on nature was prioritised. Climate change came third. The Plan will be re-ordered to reflect these priorities. Thank you so much to all of our constituents who have contributed, bringing a richness of intelligent comments and ideas. CEAC will be studying the output. Today, we have been asked to consider what monitoring we should put forward against the nature and climate elements of the Corporate Plan.
I reported at our last meeting on the hearings of the 2035 Local Plan. The Inspector had invited me to write some words on a policy for nature recovery, and agreed that we could work to improve DES11, the climate change policy. Our task and finish group met with planners to work on both issues, but In the event, no changes to policy wording were permitted. We shall therefore be building thousands of fuel-guzzling homes, roads and other infrastructure, massively pushing up CO2 emissions in South Oxfordshire. How can we then hit our net carbon zero 2030 target?
Developments will be required to show no net loss of biodiversity but no net gain either. Meanwhile in Wallingford and Cholsey, we are finding estates old and new are not succeeding in their planting regimes; with hundreds of newly-planted trees dying or dead.
The Inspector has stated that 15% housing growth in the market towns should be seen as a minimum and that neighbourhood plans should not put a cap on the number of homes. When the plan is forced through adoption by the Secretary of State in December, we will instantly halve our land supply from 10 years to 5. A slight housing market downturn will pitch us straight back into speculative land grabs.
However, meanwhile, we are making great progress on our climate and nature programmes. We have started working with Greentech to support and build our low carbon economy; commissioned Low Carbon Hub to study the feasibility of a new solar park, which will fit in with the Power Purchase Agreement that we are discussing today; and we have some excellent candidates for our climate change officer role - the application end date was today.
There is a draft paper that we shall soon see on a project plan for the circular economy in Oxfordshire; we have plans to respond to the National Clean Air Day on the 8th October; we are developing the communication strategy: a campaign page on our website and a twitter hashtag development, and importantly, building upon the interest shown in our Corporate Plan. Finally a strategy is being drafted for electric vehicle infrastructure.