Torridge is carbon footprint laggard

But Exeter is near top of net zero league

The carbon footprint of Torridge District Council has more than doubled in the last three years and is near the bottom of the league of local authorities working towards net zero targets.

Torridge is 149th out of 164 district councils on the council climate action scorecard for 2023.

Climate Emergency UK assessed all councils on the actions they’ve taken towards net zero, and of the district authorities Exeter is currently in third position and Teignbridge sixth, with East Devon 16th, South Hams 20th, West Devon 30th, North Devon 64th and Mid Devon 85th.

Members of Torridge District Council’s community and resources committee were told that it’s poor ranking was not because it didn’t have a good action plan or didn’t understand good practice, but that it is struggling for cash.

Sustainability and climate change officer Donna Sibley said: “There is nothing really missing from our carbon environment and biodiversity plan but the difficulty is this work is not given government funding and we have to scrape together the funds for this.”

By signing up to the Devon Climate Emergency in 2019, councils agree to report their annual carbon emissions. In Torridge it was 8,011 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) in 2022/23 compared with 3,875 in the baseline year of 2020/2021.

Councillors were told that despite the three Torridge leisure centres, which are large energy consumers, being added to the figures for the first time, the council is still well over its baseline year.

But the officer reminded councillors that 2020 was an “odd year” when most people were working from home and carbon emissions were lower than expected because of covid lockdowns.

A £1.7 million bid has gone into the government to decarbonise Holsworthy Pool and to Sport England for energy efficiency measures at all three leisure centres and the authority is starting to look at decarbonising its vehicles and energy use at its properties.

But it’s claimed the rural nature of Torridge means that electric vehicles currently on the market can’t cope with the hills and lanes.

There is also a cost implication, as a refuse collection vehicle fuelled by diesel is £185,000, electric £440,000 and hydrogen £850,000.

Carbon offsetting such as renewable energy generation and planting woodlands would be necessary to help reach the net zero target, councillors were told.

Lead member for climate change Cllr Peter Hames (Green, Appledore) said the council needed to speed up its action plan.

“There are good reasons why we cannot invest in electric vehicles for some of our rural areas but we need to put urgent attention on the more urban scenarios,” he said.

“Every councillor needs to be very clear in how we are going to achieve this, we only have six years left of our target.”

He recognised the good work that is being done, but with Torridge near the bottom of the national scorecard, there is still work to do.

With HVO fuel, which comes from palm oil, being one of the cleanest fuels on the market, Cllr Wendy Lo-Vel (Green, Northam) asked if the council could consider this alternative to diesel, but was told that it contributed to deforestation and could outweigh the positives.  Officers were waiting on a report from the Environment Agency and construction industry on this.

Cllr Jane Whittaker (Con, Northam) said: ”This council is doing its best within the amount of reserves it has.  I know we have to do something, there is no doubt about that and I understand the concerns, but if we haven’t got the money to put on the table and we are challenged in other ways because of our rurality, I am not terribly sure what else we can do accept keep trying.”

Cllr Chris Leather said reaching net zero by 2030 is “a pipedream” and carbon offsetting “a con” that the council would have no choice but to sign up to.