At our Cabinet meeting being held at 5.30pm on Tuesday 13 July, Members will be asked to consider a report recommending the formation of a Torbay Climate Partnership, as part of our response to the climate emergency and our aim to become carbon neutral by 2030.

Under the proposed partnership, Torbay’s businesses, community groups and residents will come together to co-develop, coordinate and deliver Torbay-wide actions to tackle the climate emergency, both in terms of immediate actions and developing long term action plans.

The proposed partnership follows an informal meeting on 4 June 2021, with a cross-section of local organisations including town councils, community groups and statuary agencies, which explored different models of working together and how to best to achieve community engagement in the proposed partnership.

While local authorities have significant scope to influence emissions in buildings, surface transport, and waste, we cannot deliver carbon neutrality across Torbay on our own.

Councillor Steve Darling, Leader of Torbay Council said: “I was delighted with the strong turnout when we consulted with our community and key partners in Torbay around this challenge a few weeks ago. There is a lot of goodwill around tackling climate change in Torbay. We now need to convert this goodwill into meaningful action around climate change for our communities across the bay”

The report follows on from our Carbon Neutral Torbay action plan (2021/22) approved by Cabinet on 23 March 2021.

At the same meeting Councillor Karen Kennedy, Scrutiny Lead for Place will propose a motion, seconded by Councillor Dart, Ward Member for Ellacombe, to support the Climate and Ecological Emergency (CEE) Bill drafted last summer by scientists, legal experts, ecological economists and environmentalists to reverse the climate and ecological breakdown we face.

Read more about this report and other reports on the agenda of the Cabinet meeting.