Agenda item

A GREEN FUTURE: OUR PLAN FOR POSITIVE CHANGE – The Deputy Chief Executive and Executive Director: Commercial submitted a report which introduced the council’s plan ‘A Green Future’, which had been developed to deliver the positive change needed to create a cleaner, greener, healthier and more sustainable North Lincolnshire. It was centred on a vision that:

‘North Lincolnshire is a ‘net zero’ area.  The environment is integral to all our decision making and everyone has a positive relationship with the environment.  We all play our part in making our area a cleaner, greener, healthier and more sustainable and attractive place to live, work and visit’.

To achieve this vision would require area wide ownership and action, and with this in mind, area wide engagement was planned.

The report summarised the impact of climate change international, the national response and associated challenged in North Lincolnshire. It also explained that nationally, the ‘Environment Bill, A Green Future: A 25 Year Plan to Improve the Environment’ and ‘The Ten Point Plan for a Green Industrial Revolution’ set out an approach to deliver the government’s environment vision.  Government asserts that local government had an essential role to play responding to challenges at a local level, leading specific and locally appropriate responses and driving innovation. 

‘A Green Future’ was the council’s plan to deliver the positive change needed which included the following eight key aims –

Aim 1: By 2030, North Lincolnshire Council will achieve ‘net zero’ and we will end the council’s contribution to global warming.

Aim 2: Clean Growth - net zero industry and commerce and good air quality.

Aim 3: The shift to net zero embeds decarbonisation in our economic growth.    We use decarbonisation as the foundation of our future prosperity.

Aim 4: Net zero living is easy and accessible.  It benefits the environment and improves people’s lives.

Aim 5: Resources are used more efficiently.  The amount of waste North Lincolnshire produces is minimised.

Aim 6: Everyone is connected with our environment.  We enhance and protect it.

Aim 7: Everyone has a stake in our environment, and everyone can feel the benefit.

Aim 8: A Network to achieve our vision for ‘A Green Future’.

To achieve these aims required significant change.  Everyone in North Lincolnshire would need to play their part – residents, businesses, the public sector and non-profit organisations. It was therefore proposed that the council now engaged with residents, businesses, the public sector and non-profit organisations across North Lincolnshire about the aims of ‘A Green Future’.  This should include seeking feedback on a range of actions that should help us achieve these aims.  Following this engagement, a new Environment Policy and Programme would be developed for approval. 

Resolved – (a) That the vision, outcomes, goals and aims of ‘A Green Future’ be noted and endorsed, and (b) that engagement with residents, businesses, the public sector and non-profit organisations be progressed with the intent of developing a greater understanding of how we best support and enable everyone to play their part in owning and taking action to achieve ‘A Green Future’ for North Lincolnshire.