In June 2019, the Council declared a Climate Emergency, recognising the serious and accelerating environmental, social and economic challenges faced by climate change.
To respond to this challenge, a partnership Climate Action Plan has been prepared which has been the culmination of collaborative work, led by Dundee City Council and co-designed with public, private and community organisations, recognising that a concerted city-wide effort is required. It represents the first set of actions in a long-term pathway to first surpass the Covenant of Mayors target of 40% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 and then to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2045 or sooner.
The Plan includes four themes of Energy, Transport, Waste and Resilience with each theme including an initial set of actions to reduce emissions or adapt to a changing climate, taking into account existing projects, stakeholder priorities and national initiatives. Sixty Four actions have been identified in the plan, including measures to:
- reduce the consumption of energy, promote energy efficiency and increase the proportion of power and heat from low and zero carbon technologies;
- encourage active travel through walking, cycling and public transport and deploy sustainable alternatives to decarbonise transport;
- manage waste sustainably by reducing, reusing, recycling and recovering waste to improve resource efficiency whilst working towards a circular economy; and
- ensure our communities, green networks and infrastructure are adaptable to a changing climate and reduce the risks and vulnerability to unavoidable impacts.
The Climate Action Plan will be delivered through the four themes of Energy, Transport, Waste and Resilience with each theme including an initial set of actions to reduce emissions or adapt to a changing climate, taking into account existing projects, stakeholder priorities and national initiatives.
Three types of actions have been defined:
- Those that have direct impact on emissions and resilience, such as an energy efficiency programme.
- Those that help to deliver or implement the direct actions, such as undertaking research, securing funding, measuring and monitoring.
- Those that enable the delivery of actions such as developing governance and project management frameworks.
To help inform the plan, a Climate Risk and Vulnerability Assessment has been carried out. It determines the nature and extent of climate-related risks by analysing potential hazards and assessing the vulernability that could pose a potential threat or harm to people, property, livelihoods and the environment of Dundee. The process highlighted how important collaboration was between sectors is (e.g. biodiversity / green infrastructure / health / flooding) and that adaptation requires a multi-disciplinary approach, where actions cannot be considered in isolation. Climate resilience actions aimed at ensuring the city's services, infrastructure and communities are able to adapt to a changing climate were then co-designed with stakeholders and incorporated into the Plan.
The Climate Action Plan has been influenced by a Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA), carried out in accordance with the Environmental Assessment (Scotland) Act 2005. The purpose of SEA is to minimise potential negative effects of plans, programmes and strategies on the environment and to enhance positive effects.