NEWS CLIMATE & ENVIRONMENT

Exeter City Council abandons city 2030 decarbonisation 'ambition'

Unannounced decision to exclude scope 3 emissions constituting around 43% of Exeter's carbon footprint from 'net zero' plans effectively ensures city will not meet its decarbonisation goals.

Net zero exeter Exeter city council Exeter city futures Climate crisis Devon carbon plan Devon county council

Exeter City Council has excluded scope 3 carbon emissions from a baseline greenhouse gas emissions inventory it commissioned to plan Exeter decarbonisation, effectively ensuring that the city will not meet its “Net Zero Exeter 2030” goal.

Scope 3 includes indirect carbon emissions which are imported through the consumption of goods and services from elsewhere, largely including transport, shipping and aviation, procurement and supply chains, waste management and commercial activity.

The most widely-used international emissions accounting tool, the Greenhouse Gas Protocol is a corporate reporting approach which includes fifteen scope 3 emissions categories. A Greenhouse Gas Protocol for Cities builds on this tool to provide a basis for community-scale carbon emission measurement.

98% of Apple’s corporate carbon footprint falls under scope 3. As accountancy firm Deloitte says: “Scope 3 is nearly always the big one”.

In 2016 the ONS estimated that 40% of the UK’s carbon footprint related to imported emissions while DEFRA found the proportion had risen to 43% two years later. Both used a consumption-based approach to analyse the country’s carbon footprint that complements, but does not map directly on to, the Greenhouse Gas Protocol for Cities approach.

Wealthy cities typically import a high proportion of their emissions. Those with low levels of carbon-intensive industrial activity, such as Exeter, tend to be at the upper end of this group. So the share of scope 3 imported emissions in Exeter may be as much as 50% or more of the city’s carbon footprint.

Production vs consumption based emissions by category

Production vs consumption based emissions by category from The Future Of Urban Consumption in a 1.5°C World, University of Leeds, ARUP & C40 Cities

The council has not announced its decision to exclude these emissions from Exeter’s carbon plans. It was instead buried in the minutes of an audit and governance committee which have only just been published, nearly a month after the meeting took place, in the same week that the IPCC delivered its latest comprehensive review of climate science.

The IPCC report is a final warning for policy-makers. It says greenhouse gas emissions must peak by 2025 to give the world a chance of meeting the all-scopes Paris Agreement targets.

Professor Jim Skea of Imperial College, who is a member of the UK Climate Change Committee and co-chair of the IPCC Working Group which authored the report said: “It’s now or never, if we want to limit global warming to 1.5°C. Without immediate and deep emissions reductions across all sectors, it will be impossible.”

UN secretary general António Guterres added: “Some government and business leaders are saying one thing — but doing another. Simply put, they are lying. And the results will be catastrophic.”

UN secretary general António Guterres on the latest IPCC report

We asked the council when and on what basis the decision was taken to exclude scope three emissions from the Exeter greenhouse gas emissions baseline inventory it commissioned, as well as who took the decision.

It said: “The work was commissioned following the decision of council to establish a carbon budget for the city of Exeter to show the baseline position for the city, the various city sectors that contribute to carbon emissions, and the targets to achieve Net Zero 2030. There was no intention to include scope 3 emissions in this particular commission.”

However neither of the decisions taken by councillors to commission a carbon budget mentions any such exclusion.

In July 2019 they resolved to “conduct a full audit of the city to highlight gaps between current plans and what is required to achieve carbon neutral” and to “define a clear city plan showing outcomes that will need to be met to deliver carbon neutral”.

Exeter City Futures was initially tasked with delivery. The company said it would assemble an academic team with the requisite specialist expertise to establish a “robust definition of what is included in the measurement of Exeter’s carbon emissions” as well as a measurement framework to make sense of all the data.

However it later admitted that it did not have the “resource capacity” to deliver the promised audit. Nor did it assemble an expert academic team to define the city’s carbon footprint or produce the framework.

The “Net Zero Exeter” plan that Exeter City Futures subsequently produced, and which the council adopted in July 2020, failed to account for around a million tonnes of annual Exeter greenhouse gas emissions. Most of the emissions it ignored are in scope 3.

Source: ONS.

The council did nothing about this until a second decision, taken in December last year, to “establish a carbon budget for the city of Exeter to show the baseline position for the city, the various city sectors who contribute to carbon emissions [and] the targets to achieve net zero”.

This decision was taken in response to calls from Green Party councillors for an Exeter carbon budget based on properly calculated baseline emissions which specifies the annual reductions required to meet the city’s decarbonisation goals, and an annual report which demonstrates progress towards these goals.

The council’s chief executive had already said there was a high risk that the council would be unable to “deliver carbon neutral aspirations for Exeter by 2030”.

So when Green Party councillor Diana Moore followed up with a formal question about the study at last month’s audit and governance committee meeting it should perhaps not have come as a surprise that the council had quietly decided not to include scope 3 emissions in its plans “at this stage given the limited ability to be able to take direct action”.

In response to our questions the council said it had restricted the study to territorial emissions on the basis such emissions are “more in the control of people living, working and visiting the city”. The council nevertheless includes scope 3 emissions arising from its purchasing decisions in its own corporate carbon budget.

The council offered no explanation for its contradictions over imported consumption emissions, and it won’t tell us who decided to implement the July 2019 decision to commission a city carbon budget this way.

Exeter can nevertheless anticipate a “clear position statement” in “early summer” from Exeter City Futures, which the council says has a “key lobbying and influencing role” in regional and national policy-making “in relation to scope 3 emissions”.

The city council’s decision to exclude imported emissions from Exeter’s decarbonisation plan makes a nonsense of its commitment to Exeter being “recognised as a leading sustainable city and global leader in addressing the social, economic and environmental challenges of climate change and urbanisation”.

The council and its partners also repeatedly claim, in press releases and policy documents, that the Net Zero Exeter plan provides “a clear roadmap to carbon neutrality”.

At the same time Devon County Council’s Devon Climate Emergency Response Group also largely excludes scope 3 emissions from its carbon footprint calculations.

It omits aviation and shipping altogether (despite estimating that flights from Exeter airport alone were responsible for 173,000tCO2e in 2019) and only includes scope 3 emissions associated with the transmissions and distribution of electricity in its figures, which are supplied by the same University of Exeter team commissioned by the city council.

In September 2020 the city council said it had put fighting climate change “at the top of its agenda”, quoting a pledge by council leader Phil Bialyk that the “ambition of creating a net zero carbon city by 2030 will be at the heart of everything the council does going forward”.

The following month Labour councillor Rachel Sutton, who is Executive Portfolio Holder for Net Zero Exeter 2030, said that Exeter was “in the vanguard of this nationwide challenge” and was “one of the few councils in the country to have set out a road map that was both deliverable and practical”.

Since then the city’s decarbonisation plans have been found wanting in a nationwide council climate action plan study which ranked Somerset West and Taunton as the highest scoring local authority area in the country. Its Carbon Neutrality and Climate Resilience Action Plan (published in September 2020) addresses all three emissions scopes.

Last year’s Exeter local elections campaign was dominated by Labour claims about the council’s environmental credentials, and the party’s efforts this year look similarly focussed. Its campaign leaflets say Exeter is “an exemplar city in the UK for carbon reduction” which is “leading the way on climate change and the green agenda”.

Perhaps the council leader’s use of the word “ambition” reveals what’s really going on? Its Latin root means “to go around canvassing for votes”.


FOOTNOTE

Several carbon emissions accounting approaches have been developed during the thirty years since the Rio Summit, and efforts to refine these approaches continue.

A comprehensive (and globally just) approach to calculating the carbon emissions of a given population or geography requires the use of a methodology which accounts not only for emissions produced (and consumed) with that territory, but also emissions that are imported (and exported).

Such an approach accounts for emissions in the places where goods and services are consumed, rather than the (usually many) places that respond to that demand by supplying the goods or services in which emissions are embedded. It produces what is often referred to as a carbon footprint for that population or geography.

In the UK there are teams at several universities working on carbon emissions accounting methodologies, each of which have produced slightly different accounts of the situation for various reasons, as we outlined in a previous story which attempted to estimate the true size of Exeter’s carbon footprint.

The University of Exeter Centre for Energy and the Environment team commissioned by the city council to produce Exeter’s baseline carbon budget follows, but does not fully adhere to, the Greenhouse Gas Protocol for Cities approach to calculate carbon emissions for places.

The Devon Carbon Plan also relies on this team for its county-wide figures, which are broken down into districts on the Devon Climate Emergency website.

However both the county, and now the city, have omitted scope 3 emissions from their carbon budgets, ignoring even the aviation and shipping emissions which the government decided to include in the UK’s sixth carbon budget twelve months ago.

Sweden has since become the world’s first country to decide to include comprehensive consumption-based emissions in its national climate targets (which are to reach net zero by 2045, five years earlier than the UK).

The restricted territorial approach to emissions measurement chosen by unnamed local council officers in Exeter has the effect of ignoring around half, perhaps more, of the greenhouse gases that are generated by the actions of people who live and work here.

It is undoubtedly very difficult to truly reduce our carbon emissions to levels compatible with limiting global heating to 1.5°C. Radical changes far beyond current local discourse would be required.

However simply excluding hundreds of thousands of tonnes of annual carbon emissions from city and county decarbonisation plans not only misrepresents the situation, misguiding individual and organisational decision-making and action, it denies the options we do have to reduce imported consumption emissions altogether.


Recent headlines
Recent headlines
St Petrocks homelessness charity Christmas appeal 2023

St Petrock's Christmas appeal to raise funds to support its work with rough sleepers

Exeter area bus services trends map

Exeter bus services cut by nearly 42% since 2010, largest fall in area

University of Exeter St Luke's campus boundary aerial view

University seeks views on St Luke's campus redevelopment

Clifton Hill sports centre development site

Clifton Hill sports centre site - with adjacent green space - and Mary Arches car park set for sale for PBSA

Sandy Park stadium

City council gives Exeter Chiefs permission to hold Sandy Park concerts with 15,500 attendees

Recent stories
St Petrocks homelessness charity Christmas appeal 2023

NEWS  ⁄  COMMUNITY & SOCIETY

St Petrock's Christmas appeal to raise funds to support its work with rough sleepers

Exeter homelessness charity's fundraising campaign features short film exploring how it feels to be homeless.

Exeter area bus services trends map

NEWS  ⁄  TRANSPORT & MOBILITY

Exeter bus services cut by nearly 42% since 2010, largest fall in area

Many of worst-affected neighbourhoods in areas where major developments planned or being built, some in Heavitree & Whipton Active Streets trial area.

University of Exeter St Luke's campus boundary aerial view

NEWS  ⁄  PLANNING & PLACE

University seeks views on St Luke's campus redevelopment

Eleven acre teaching and research site between Heavitree Road and Magdalen Road to become 'health and wellbeing' campus and may include student accommodation.

Clifton Hill sports centre development site

NEWS  ⁄  PLANNING & PLACE

Clifton Hill sports centre site - with adjacent green space - and Mary Arches car park set for sale for PBSA

Reversal of policy to prohibit Purpose Built Student Accommodation on city council land proposed to cover expected £9 million outstanding Exeter City Living debt, with £800,000 budget proposed for site disposal costs.

Sandy Park stadium

NEWS  ⁄  ECONOMY & ENTERPRISE

City council gives Exeter Chiefs permission to hold Sandy Park concerts with 15,500 attendees

Permanent consent for six weekend events between 1 May and 15 July each year with amplified music to 10.30pm follows four trial concerts with audiences of just 3,500.

On Our Radar
More stories
Illustrative elevations facing Cowley Bridge Road

NEWS  ⁄  PLANNING & PLACE

City council approves Cowley Bridge Road student blocks on former Johnsons site

350 bedspaces in four blocks up to six storeys tall to be built on windfall site left vacant after 2020 fire at former laundry and workwear factory.

University of Exeter social mobility awards graphic

ANALYSIS  ⁄  COMMUNITY & SOCIETY

University of Exeter promotes social mobility 'silver awards' after being ranked 92nd in HEPI index

Higher Education Policy Institute social mobility ranking follows landmark study placing university 103rd in higher education social mobility league table, while South West young people are least likely to attend university in the country.

Exeter housing

ANALYSIS  ⁄  COMMUNITY & SOCIETY

Exeter has 3,100 vacant and empty second homes, nearly 6% of city's housing stock

ONS also finds South West has 183,000 unoccupied dwellings with another 200,000 in use as second homes in the region, of which more than 4,000 are in Exeter, as statutory homelessness increases and rough sleeping doubles in city.

JCDecaux illuminated street advertising screen

NEWS  ⁄  PLANNING & PLACE

Planning inspectors uphold decisions to refuse illuminated city centre advertising screens

Appeal dismissals conclude JCDecaux 'multifunction hubs' would materially harm character, appearance and visual amenity and have 'very limited' benefits in Sidwell Street, Paris Street and South Street with High Street hub decision to follow.

Seabrook Orchards phase three illustration

NEWS  ⁄  PLANNING & PLACE

Seabrook Orchards development plans submitted one house short of key planning condition threshold

Residents group says Bloor Homes application does not address pedestrian and cycle connectivity and is 'seeking to actively avoid delivery' of agreed transport infrastructure.

Maketank window display

NEWS  ⁄  COMMUNITY & SOCIETY

Maketank community arts centre closes after more than four years at the heart of Exeter cultural life

Crown Estate unwilling to renew lease after problems with roof preclude repairs in block scheduled for demolition as part of CityPoint redevelopment.

Spotlight
New Exeter local plan graphic

City council holds consultation on full draft of new Exeter Local Plan, set to guide development to 2040

Second major consultation begins as government introduces sweeping national planning system reforms including transfer of powers to Whitehall and changes to scope of local plans and local plan-making processes.

, updated

All topics

ACCOUNTABILITY & TRANSPARENCY ACCOUNTABILITY & TRANSPARENCY ACCOUNTABILITY & TRANSPARENCY   AIR QUALITY AIR QUALITY AIR QUALITY   COP26 COP26 COP26   COVID-19 COVID-19 COVID-19   CITYPOINT CITYPOINT CITYPOINT   CLIFTON HILL SPORTS CENTRE CLIFTON HILL SPORTS CENTRE CLIFTON HILL SPORTS CENTRE   CLIMATE CRISIS CLIMATE CRISIS CLIMATE CRISIS   CO-LIVING CO-LIVING CO-LIVING   COMMUNITY INFRASTRUCTURE LEVY COMMUNITY INFRASTRUCTURE LEVY COMMUNITY INFRASTRUCTURE LEVY   CONGESTION CONGESTION CONGESTION   COUNCIL TAX COUNCIL TAX COUNCIL TAX   CROWN ESTATE CROWN ESTATE CROWN ESTATE   CYCLING & WALKING CYCLING & WALKING CYCLING & WALKING   DEMOCRATIC DEFICIT DEMOCRATIC DEFICIT DEMOCRATIC DEFICIT   DEVON & CORNWALL POLICE DEVON & CORNWALL POLICE DEVON & CORNWALL POLICE   DEVON CARBON PLAN DEVON CARBON PLAN DEVON CARBON PLAN   DEVON COUNTY COUNCIL DEVON COUNTY COUNCIL DEVON COUNTY COUNCIL   DEVON PENSION FUND DEVON PENSION FUND DEVON PENSION FUND   EAST DEVON DISTRICT COUNCIL EAST DEVON DISTRICT COUNCIL EAST DEVON DISTRICT COUNCIL   EXETER AIRPORT EXETER AIRPORT EXETER AIRPORT   EXETER CATHEDRAL EXETER CATHEDRAL EXETER CATHEDRAL   EXETER CHIEFS EXETER CHIEFS EXETER CHIEFS   EXETER CITY COUNCIL EXETER CITY COUNCIL EXETER CITY COUNCIL   EXETER CITY FUTURES EXETER CITY FUTURES EXETER CITY FUTURES   EXETER CITY LIVING EXETER CITY LIVING EXETER CITY LIVING   EXETER CLIMATE ACTION HUB EXETER CLIMATE ACTION HUB EXETER CLIMATE ACTION HUB   EXETER COLLEGE EXETER COLLEGE EXETER COLLEGE   EXETER CULTURE EXETER CULTURE EXETER CULTURE   EXETER DEVELOPMENT FUND EXETER DEVELOPMENT FUND EXETER DEVELOPMENT FUND   EXETER LIVE BETTER EXETER LIVE BETTER EXETER LIVE BETTER   EXETER LOCAL PLAN EXETER LOCAL PLAN EXETER LOCAL PLAN   EXETER PHOENIX EXETER PHOENIX EXETER PHOENIX   EXETER PRIDE EXETER PRIDE EXETER PRIDE   EXETER SCIENCE PARK EXETER SCIENCE PARK EXETER SCIENCE PARK   EXETER ST DAVID'S EXETER ST DAVID'S EXETER ST DAVID'S   EXETER TRANSPORT STRATEGY EXETER TRANSPORT STRATEGY EXETER TRANSPORT STRATEGY   EXETER CITY CENTRE EXETER CITY CENTRE EXETER CITY CENTRE   EXTINCTION REBELLION EXETER EXTINCTION REBELLION EXETER EXTINCTION REBELLION EXETER   FREEDOM OF INFORMATION FREEDOM OF INFORMATION FREEDOM OF INFORMATION   FRIDAYS FOR FUTURE EXETER FRIDAYS FOR FUTURE EXETER FRIDAYS FOR FUTURE EXETER   GENERAL ELECTIONS GENERAL ELECTIONS GENERAL ELECTIONS   GUILDHALL GUILDHALL GUILDHALL   HARLEQUINS HARLEQUINS HARLEQUINS   HEART OF THE SOUTH WEST LEP HEART OF THE SOUTH WEST LEP HEART OF THE SOUTH WEST LEP   HOUSING CRISIS HOUSING CRISIS HOUSING CRISIS   LGBTQIA+ LGBTQIA+ LGBTQIA+   LIBRARIES UNLIMITED LIBRARIES UNLIMITED LIBRARIES UNLIMITED   LIVEABLE EXETER PLACE BOARD LIVEABLE EXETER PLACE BOARD LIVEABLE EXETER PLACE BOARD   LIVEABLE EXETER LIVEABLE EXETER LIVEABLE EXETER   LOCAL INDUSTRIAL STRATEGY LOCAL INDUSTRIAL STRATEGY LOCAL INDUSTRIAL STRATEGY   LOCAL ELECTIONS LOCAL ELECTIONS LOCAL ELECTIONS   MAKETANK MAKETANK MAKETANK   MARSH BARTON MARSH BARTON MARSH BARTON   MET OFFICE MET OFFICE MET OFFICE   MID DEVON DISTRICT COUNCIL MID DEVON DISTRICT COUNCIL MID DEVON DISTRICT COUNCIL   NET ZERO EXETER NET ZERO EXETER NET ZERO EXETER   NORTHERNHAY GARDENS NORTHERNHAY GARDENS NORTHERNHAY GARDENS   OXYGEN HOUSE OXYGEN HOUSE OXYGEN HOUSE   PARIS STREET PARIS STREET PARIS STREET   PARKING PARKING PARKING   PENINSULA TRANSPORT PENINSULA TRANSPORT PENINSULA TRANSPORT   PLANNING POLICY PLANNING POLICY PLANNING POLICY   PRINCESSHAY PRINCESSHAY PRINCESSHAY   PROPERTY DEVELOPMENT PROPERTY DEVELOPMENT PROPERTY DEVELOPMENT   PUBLIC CONSULTATION PUBLIC CONSULTATION PUBLIC CONSULTATION   PUBLIC HEALTH PUBLIC HEALTH PUBLIC HEALTH   PUBLIC PARKS PUBLIC PARKS PUBLIC PARKS   PUBLIC REALM PUBLIC REALM PUBLIC REALM   PUBLIC TRANSPORT PUBLIC TRANSPORT PUBLIC TRANSPORT   RAMM RAMM RAMM   REFUSE & RECYCLING REFUSE & RECYCLING REFUSE & RECYCLING   RETROFIT RETROFIT RETROFIT   ROYAL DEVON NHS TRUST ROYAL DEVON NHS TRUST ROYAL DEVON NHS TRUST   SIDWELL STREET SIDWELL STREET SIDWELL STREET   SOUTH WEST EXETER EXTENSION SOUTH WEST EXETER EXTENSION SOUTH WEST EXETER EXTENSION   SOUTH WEST WATER SOUTH WEST WATER SOUTH WEST WATER   SOUTHERNHAY SOUTHERNHAY SOUTHERNHAY   SPORT ENGLAND LOCAL DELIVERY PILOT SPORT ENGLAND LOCAL DELIVERY PILOT SPORT ENGLAND LOCAL DELIVERY PILOT   ST JAMES NEIGHBOURHOOD PLAN ST JAMES NEIGHBOURHOOD PLAN ST JAMES NEIGHBOURHOOD PLAN   ST SIDWELL'S COMMUNITY CENTRE ST SIDWELL'S COMMUNITY CENTRE ST SIDWELL'S COMMUNITY CENTRE   ST SIDWELL'S POINT ST SIDWELL'S POINT ST SIDWELL'S POINT   STAGECOACH SOUTH WEST STAGECOACH SOUTH WEST STAGECOACH SOUTH WEST   STUDENT ACCOMMODATION STUDENT ACCOMMODATION STUDENT ACCOMMODATION   TEIGNBRIDGE DISTRICT COUNCIL TEIGNBRIDGE DISTRICT COUNCIL TEIGNBRIDGE DISTRICT COUNCIL   UNIVERSITY OF EXETER UNIVERSITY OF EXETER UNIVERSITY OF EXETER   WATER LANE WATER LANE WATER LANE  

More stories