Climate Emergency and Environmental Management
The Council declared a Climate Emergency in June 2019, in which it committed to:
- Strive to make all South Derbyshire District Council owned activities carbon neutral by 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality across South Derbyshire before the Government target of 2050.
- Call on the UK Government to provide the powers and resources to make the 2030 target realistic.
- Work with partners across the District and region to deliver this goal through all relevant strategies.
Why the emergency?
If South Derbyshire District’s annual carbon emissions do not drastically reduce from 2018/19 levels, we will have used our allotted emissions by 2026. Therefore the climate emergency is real and is a significant threat to our communities, environment and economy.
How will climate change affect South Derbyshire?
Extreme weather change is already affecting health and wellbeing, as we have seen with increase in flooding events and dry spells impacting on water availability. The long-term effects of climate change will see these types of events increase in frequency and impact on which animals and plants can survive and what food can be grown. This could lead to an increase in the cost of living. Click here to learn more about the climate and ecological crisis here
What is the Council doing?
The council has in place a Climate and Environment Strategy and a supporting South Derbyshire's Climate and Environment plan which aligns to the Councils Corporate Plan commitments of "Our Environment, Our People, Our Future"
The Councils Climate and Environment Action Plan consists of over 50 climate adaption and mitigation actions that the Council is progressing.
This Action Plan is reviewed on an annual basis in conjunction with an annual Carbon Reduction Report that will both review the progress of the individual climate adaption and mitigation actions and the impact that these have had on reduction the Councils carbon emissions.
More specific detail of the individual actions that form the Climate & Environment Action Plan, the latest annual Carbon Reduction Report and Climate and Environment Action Progress Report can be found at Climate and Environment Action Plan web page.
Every quarter the Council reports on the progress it is making on each individual action within its plan and how this progress is impacting the reduction in carbon emissions across the District.
Learn more about the progress that the Council is making both its past, present and future actions by visiting the web page at Climate and Environment Projects | South Derbyshire District Council and Climate and Biodiversity | South Derbyshire District Council
Part of the Council’s role around the Climate Emergency is to support residents, businesses and other organisations in coping with the impact of climate change and changes in behaviour that supports carbon emission reduction. This includes giving guidance and support around household energy efficiency (https://www.southderbyshire.gov.uk/our-services/housing/domestic-energy-efficiency), recycling (Recycling, bins and waste | South Derbyshire District Council) and flooding and extreme weather (Emergency planning | South Derbyshire District Council)
Governance of the Council’s Climate Emergency and Environmental Action.
Decision making through the Environmental and Development Services Committee - As well as the approval of the Corporate Plan, Strategy, Action Plan and Progress Reports all Climate Emergency and Environmental activities and decision-making report through to the Environmental and Development Services Committee (EDS) consisting of elected members. The operational decision making, and performance reporting are through the Corporate Environmental Sustainability Group (CESG) made up of the Council’s senior leadership and subject matter experts.
ISO14001 certification - the Council’s environmental management system (called STEMS) is ISO14001 certified and provides the procedures that manage the environmental impacts of the Council’s activities, with the aim of continual environmental improvement at the following sites:
- Civic Offices
- Boardman Depot
- Greenbank and Etwall Leisure Centres
- Rosliston Forestry Centre
- Midway and Stenson Fields Community Centres
- Parks
STEMS includes ensuring that environmental sustainability and climate emergency decision making is at the heart of the Council’s governance process. Environmental sustainability and social value are mandated sections of the standard Committee Report template completed as part of the environmental impact assessment.
Strategy, policies and risk - You can find the details of the Council Leadership governance commitment here: Environmental Policy (pdf, 203kb)
Overall the Council Strategies, Policies and Action Plans around the Climate and Ecological crisis and its ongoing progress and delivery of the Climate Emergency and Environmental commitments can all be found at: Climate | South Derbyshire District Council
The Council has also identified the environmental risks of the Climate Emergency to the local area as well as the impact that it could have on residents, businesses and the economy and as such has included Climate Emergency in its Corporate Risk Register (Ref. CR22).
Procurement – The Council’s Procurement Strategy Framework (
The assessment criteria of all tenders must include the initial and ongoing environmental impact, life expectancy, cost of emissions, consumption of energy and social value.
Section 49 (Protecting the Environment) within the Procurement Strategy and Framework clearly sets out how all tenderers must adhere to the Council’s Environmental Strategy and the expectation that Suppliers will work with the Council on waste reduction, increased recycling, reducing the carbon footprint and improving the overall sustainability of goods and services.
Great examples of the Council putting environmental sustainability at the heart of its procurement is the green electricity tariff it uses for public buildings and the alternatives to single use plastics water cups and bottles at it’s Civic Offices and events.
Funding – the outline estimated costs of the large carbon emission reducing transformation actions are detailed in the Council’s Climate and Environment Action Plan. Typically these costs are funded by a combination of Central and Regional Government grant funding with match funding from the Council. Over the last few years the Council has been successful in winning a number of Government funded bids (BEIS, OZEV and Salix funding) for the decarbonisation of buildings, private and social housing and transport.
In addition funding for some of the biodiversity net gain actions, sustainable travel actions and other environmental sustainability actions within the Climate and Environment Action Plan can and are raised through Section 106 funding.
Some of the funding successes that have supported the reduction of carbon emissions for both in-house and district-wide actions are detailed on the Climate and Environment Action web page (Climate and Environment Projects | South Derbyshire District Council)
The Council also successfully delivers funding arrangements for its residents to retrofit or install energy efficiency measures for their own homes. Details of this funding, the energy efficiency measures, and eligibility conditions can be found at: https://www.southderbyshire.gov.uk/our-services/environment/apply-for-a-green-homes-grant
The Council’s Local Plan – The Council is currently in the process of going out to consultation on its new Local Plan ( Local Plan: Issues and options consultation | South Derbyshire District Council ) which has a specific section around the Climate and Environment Emergency, its impacts and what the Council proposes to include in its new Local Plan to ensure its carbon neutral commitments are met. This Local Plan consultation requests all interested parties to submit feedback on all aspects of carbon emission reduction and biodiversity net gain. Of particular emphasis is around housing development and includes low carbon new home development, energy efficient homes and embodied house building emissions that go further than the Part L Building Regulations. It also includes water usage targets, renewable energy sources for new homes as well as provision for EV charging and the reduction of car travel through sustainable travel plans.
Renewable Energy – Derbyshire County Council has commissioned a study that provides the spatial assessment of energy opportunities across the whole of Derbyshire that includes South Derbyshire as a specific area. This study supports the local development planning and contributes to initiating a collaborative approach to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and achieving net zero by 2050. This report can be found at Renewable energy study - Derbyshire County Council .
