Climate Change

Our Climate Emergency Action Plan aims to reduce carbon emissions across all our service areas and encourage key partners and local residents and organisations to also take action.

The plan is based on feedback from consultation including with young people and Pendle Council staff. There are seven themes:

• support and enable sustainable travel
• reduce carbon emissions and energy demand from the built environment
• reduce the harmful impacts of waste and water consumption
• support our communities to take action
• support our future generations to find solutions
• making sure we consider climate change in everything we do
• support biodiversity and the natural environment to help local carbon off setting opportunities

The plan identifies actions that the Council will take, as well as actions which require working with key partners.

Support and enable sustainable travel

Strategic Objectives

• Encourage sustainable travel amongst Council staff
• Reduce emissions from the Council's transport fleet
• Enable and promote active travel, such as cycling and walking

Actions

• Introduce a staff electric car pool scheme
• Where possible, reduce the need for staff travel through home working, better use of IT and flexible working
• Do an annual staff travel survey to understand current commuting patterns and encourage lift sharing amongst Council staff 
• Promote electric vehicles through the staff salary sacrifice car scheme
• Improve the workplace cycling infrastructure
• Support Council staff in identifying safe cycle routes to work 
• Introduce and promote an e-bike pool for Council staff for business use 
• Increase the allowance on the bike scheme to encourage staff to cycle more 
• Introduce electric vehicles into the Council's transport fleet and explore options for bio gas from recycled vegetable oil 
• Introduce an electric Mayoral vehicle 
• Incentivise public transport use for Council events and activities 
• Sign post and promote other existing cycling routes for safer cycling and walking 
• Enhance Pendle’s electric charging point infrastructure, subject to funding 
• Promote the canal tow path as a safe cycling and walking route 
• Ensure all development plans commit to carbon offsetting measures to reduce the overall impact to zero 

Reduce carbon emissions and energy demand from the built environment

Strategic objectives

• Heat our buildings with low carbon and/or renewable heating and change behaviours towards energy consumption
• Encourage energy efficiency standards and improvements and reduce fuel poverty
• Implement compliance in existing core strategy policies for all new development proposals, unless it can be demonstrated that compliance with the policy is not viable or feasible

Actions

• Provide information and materials to educate and engage businesses with low carbon sources of heating 
• Ensure the Council’s own estate’s energy efficiency is maximised through improved energy management 
• Ensure low cost technologies such as LED lighting are rolled out across the council estate, including parks and open spaces, as well as included in new developments, to reduce energy use 
• Support private landlords to improve eco-standards and reduce domestic emissions 
• Develop and implement a Pendle Home Energy programme via Cozy Homes in Lancashire (CHiL) 
• Review the effectiveness of existing Policy ENV3 Renewable and Low Carbon Generation and Policy ENV20 in the Part 2 Local Plan (LP) to support the delivery of renewable technologies on new developments (Policy ENV20 in the Part 2 Local Plan (LP2) will supplement and update Policy ENV3) 
• Showcase PEARL Together Housing Scheme on Harrison Drive as good practice for future housing developments 
• Consider the scope for using open spaces like parks for ground source heating system for local houses through the ENV20 Renewable and Low Carbon Energy Policy 
• Review effectiveness of planning policies that support the Green Belt and Local Green Spaces 
• Actively promote brownfield sites for new developments 
• Review and audit Council’s Draft Local Development Plan and Policies to ensure that they comply with the Climate Emergency and the Council commitment to achieve zero carbon by 2030 

Reduce the harmful impacts of waste and water consumption

Strategic objectives

• Reduce Single Plastic Use in the council and in the community
• Embed environmental practices such as grey water systems in building maintenance programmes

Actions

• Review Procurement Policy to minimise Single Use Plastics and enhance sustainable procurement 
• Encourage Single Use Plastics minimisation amongst Town and Parish Councils 
• Support the introduction of community drinking water schemes to minimise plastic bottle consumption 
• Continue to reduce paper consumption and improve use of IT

Supporting our communities to take action

Strategic objectives

• Develop a media campaign to encourage community action on climate change 
• Identify Council assets to support community action
• Work with voluntary and community groups to enable collective action on climate change

Actions

• Campaign to encourage residents to improve their environment 
• Campaign to promote reduce, reuse and recycle messages 
• Campaign to promote sustainable food 
• Identify Council land for potential community growing initiatives 
• Support and encourage community climate initiatives 
• Promote community switch schemes to transfer energy from fossil fuel to renewable suppliers

Supporting our future generations to find solutions

Strategic objectives

• Work to ensure young people are engaged in solutions 

Actions

• Build on the Pendle Schools Climate Movement to encourage schools to take collective action 
• Develop and implement plan Pendle Schools Climate Movement Communications Plan 
• Seek opportunities to creatively engage young people in climate change activities

Making sure we consider climate change in everything we do 

Strategic objectives

• Understand our own carbon footprint and review targets for carbon reduction 
• Include climate emergency considerations in all key new Council policies and plans

Actions

• Embed climate change into the Council’s Strategic Plan 
• Calculate and produce annual emissions reports, appointing One Carbon World to establish a carbon footprint baseline 
• Work with Pendle Leisure Trust to reduce their carbon footprint 
• Revise annual carbon reduction targets in line with 2030 carbon neutral target 
• Identify and agree a Climate Emergency budget 
• Maintain the Council’s position opposing fracking 
• Lobby Government for policy change 
• Work with other Lancashire districts and Town and Parish Councils to enable collective action on climate change 

Support biodiversity and the natural environment to help local carbon off setting opportunities

Strategic objectives

• Improve land and building management practices to better retain carbon 
• Improve opportunities for biodiversity and enhance and preserve the natural environment 
• Invest in tree planting and woodland management

Actions

• Support the Lancashire Woodland Connect initiative to increase woodland cover on private land 
• Consider opportunities to reduce the use of herbicides for greenspace management 
• Consider opportunities to reduce the use of pesticides for pest management 
• Strengthen consideration of landscaping schemes in relation to planning applications 
• Explore the use of deploying differential mowing techniques in suitable areas of our parks 
• Continue to reduce the provision of annual bedding. Where there is a continued need for bedding seek to replace resource heavy annuals with perennial planting schemes 
• Encourage Town Councils to continue the work of re-wilding areas in the parks 
• Work with a key Pendle landowner to encourage and adopt re-wilding approaches and promote good practice 
• Explore the opportunities and feasibility for urban greening (e.g. street trees), tree planting and green roofs/walls and promote them through ENV1 Protecting and Enhancing Our Natural Environments 
• Promote local scale offsetting through tree planting and retaining green spaces as a normal function of future planning processes 
• Develop and implement the Tree and Woodland Management Strategy 
• Set annual tree planting targets for Council and Ribble Rivers Trust sites 
• Develop annual tree planting plans in conjunction with Ribble Rivers Trust 
• Off-set the Council’s carbon emissions through local tree planting initiatives
   
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