Archived decisions

REPORT OF THE

CABINET/LEADER

PART II

PROPOSED STRATEGIC APPROACH TO COMMUNITY CLIMATE CHANGE ENGAGEMENT

At its meeting held on 30 March 2009, Cabinet agreed a strategy for supporting local community action on climate change and to formally engage with the Greening Campaign over the remaining two years of the Hampshire Local Area Agreement (LAA). The Greening Campaign is an engagement scheme designed to encourage local communities to tackle climate change and to motivate individuals to take action to reduce personal energy consumption and their carbon footprint.

Approximately a third of carbon levels in the community arise from the domestic sector. Engagement of local communities therefore forms an important part of the delivery of climate change for the LAA. The Greening Campaign provides an opportunity to trial innovative ways of working with "hard to reach" groups, and provides opportunities to link in with District Council supported activities. Such work provides cross-cutting support of other LAA priorities and the County Council's corporate aims. The Greening Campaign also works with other local climate change action groups in order to share and replicate good practice across communities.

Formal engagement with the Greening Campaign has now begun and a work programme for year 2 of the LAA period is currently in development. The Greening Campaign will look to attract funding from SEEDA, district councils and local businesses in order to widen the coverage of the agreed engagement programme, and subject to the achievement of tangible results in 2009/10, the County Council will continue to work with the Greening Campaign in 2010/11, the third and final year of the current LAA.

The report considered by Cabinet can be accessed at /decisions/decisions-docs/090330-cabine-R0323153423

The Hampshire Local Area Agreement (LAA) 2008-11 has been approved by the County Council, as the responsible body and the Secretary of State for Communities Local Government.  This three-year agreement between local partners and central government describes the priorities and targets included within 8 different themes, including Environment, for the area.

The Environment theme includes climate change targets covering both mitigation (carbon reduction) and adaptation. Recognising the scale, complexity and long term nature of tackling climate change effectively, a vision and strategy for the Hampshire community is being developed which will enable key work areas over the coming decade to be prioritised.