“In response to the Declaration of a Climate Emergency in 2019, does the Council intend to decarbonise our light vehicle fleet?
Wouldn't setting a meaningful timetable and targets send a clear message to the residents of Carmarthenshire that we take our responsibilities seriously, and give us an opportunity to showcase the cost savings and benefits of an electric fleet to businesses and organisations within our County?”
Minutes:
Question by Councillor James:
“In response to the Declaration of a Climate Emergency in 2019, does the Council intend to decarbonise our light vehicle fleet?
Wouldn't setting a meaningful timetable and targets send a clear message to the residents of Carmarthenshire that we take our responsibilities seriously, and give us an opportunity to showcase the cost savings and benefits of an electric fleet to businesses and organisations within our County?”
Response by Councillor Vaughan Owen:
Thankyou very much Councillor James and your question does raise a vital issue that affects not only the environment but also our health and well-being. It’s about the urgent need to decarbonise our public fleet of vehicles. This is not just an issue of environmental concern. It’s essential for our future.
Scientists and organisations around the world have been sounding the alarm, including the fire service today in his presentation, and the message is clear the lifetime of oil is no longer sustainable for the sake of our climate and public health. Organisations such as the Inter-Government Panel on Climate change, the IPCC, and the World Health Organisation have provided irrefutable evidence that our continued dependence on fossil fuels is causing serious damage to our planet and our own health. We can’t deny our dependency on oil.
For us, as an authority, we have fully committed to playing our part and have set an ambition to be net zero by the end of the decade. The largest carbon footprint comes from our non-domestic buildings and some really innovative steps are being taken to reduce energy demand in the form of electricity and heat. as has been noted in the Annual Report and 20% of the emissions come from our fleet and we have to do things differently in this area quickly.
So, I can announce that by working together Cllr Edward Thomas we have mandated that, from this week forward, all new fleet across the authority must have the presumption in favour of Electric Vehicles. Clearly, an assessment will support every decision based on the technical requirements, the economic costs and savings, the environment and health benefits and the practicality of deployment.
This decision now shapes the way forward for a new fleet strategy that is fit for purpose and addresses the challenges and opportunities ahead.
In the last meeting of the Climate and Nature Emergency Advisory Panel, members agreed to undertake a deep dive into fleet and transport across the authority. We are lucky to have knowledgable and passionate members from across the chamber who will be able to gather evidence from experts and others that have started the journey and together we will shape an exciting bold new fleet strategy that will be scrutinised and hopefully enhanced by the Place and Sustainability Scrutiny committee. The insight of both the panel and scrutiny will provide recommendations to the Cabinet on practical measures to accelerate the transition, setting ambitious targets and driving us closer to the net zero goal.
We need to step away from doing less bad in better ways.
We need to step away from incremental chances in the wrong places and find out the boundaries of what is possible.
But it is not like we are starting from a standing start, currently about 17% of our cars are Ultra Low Emission Vehicles but, regionally, we have been on the front foot when it comes to the larger fleet, including three refuse lorries and the 8 EV Traws Cymru buses that run from Carmarthen to Aberystwyth.
These have given us such an insight and learning around Electric Vehicle technology and capability - imagine a bus that can do 230miles on a single charge and then recharge in 90 mins
We have also built design and construction skills within the county while developing the charging station at Nant y Ci.
For every local authority is presented with unique geographical challenges, each with its own set of obstacles and opportunities, but working collaboratively we can deploy the right vehicle to the right place and learn, fail and share so that this country can significantly decarbonise the public fleet. We are already part of an all Wales purchasing agreement that can look at funding options, the economies of scale means significantly reducing costs and also reducing the lead in time for vehicles. We are in the process of ordering 20 electric light commercial vehicles.
Our action plan with the Public Service Board Partners will see us working more collaboratively across the county when it comes to the charging infrastructure. Each organisation is on its own decarbonising journey but enabling each partner to access one another’s charging network will accelerate the business case for fleet de-carbonisation.
But also, this is about how we enable society to decarbonise the way it travels. Having a fleet of Ultra Low Emission Vehicles should be something we would want to share with others. We have already invested heavily in a charging network across the county, and we are looking at innovative ways to develop on-street charging. The transition to low carbon transport must be fair and equitable and who knows, we might start thinking even further outside the box and commit to some of our pool cars to be available for as community car club vehicles and make greater use of night-time charging tariffs. Promoting the positive aspects of a decarbonisation in the fleet, reducing carbon emissions, improving air quality, debunking some mis-information being promoted by those still heavily invested in oil and gas, are all things we must do in parallel with switching our fleet.
Now is the moment to embrace the green revolution, we accelerate along this journey, we mustn’t look in the rear view mirror and say, this is how we have always done it, in fact we should be looking back and say, can you believe how we used to do things?
The road before us is uneven and uncertain but decarbonising the fleet is like paving the way to a sustainable future where every vehicle represents a step towards a cleaner and greener path.
Supplementary question by Councillor James: There was no supplementary question.