FOI Request - Climate Change Plan and Routemap to Net Zero
Request 101003704788
1. Moray's weather pattern are becoming increasingly erratic and sea levels are rising - can you provide the figures for these changes?
2. Who provides your climate and nature emergency training, as recommended for all tier 1-3 managers and elected members, and who sets the syllabus?
3. What is the Moray Council budget for climate change and net zero in 2024?
Response 12-02-2025
1. The Council accesses climatological, meteorological, and sea-level change information from the Met Office, Adaptation Scotland, NASA, and the IPCC. The information requested is publicly available and is not created or held by the Council. Information that is not held falls under Section 17 of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 - Information not held.
However, this information can be accessed online by the following links:
- https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/research/approach/collaboration/ukcp/data/index
- https://climate.metoffice.cloud/extremes/dashboard.html
- https://climate.metoffice.cloud/dashboard.html
- https://adaptation.scot/scotland-and-climate-change/climate-change-trends-and-projections/
- https://sealevel.nasa.gov/
- https://www.ipcc.ch/reports/
2. Climate and nature emergency training is carried out in-house by Moray Council officers. The training materials were developed by the Carbon Literacy Project and adapted by Moray Council to suit local delivery needs.
3. Tackling climate change and achieving net zero are integral themes across all three priorities in the Council’s Corporate Plan 2024. As such, these issues are embedded within various workstreams and are pursued as part of the Council’s day-to-day operations rather than being managed as a standalone project.
In 2024, the only specific budget element allocated to Climate Change was £243,000 for Climate Change aspects of fleet as part of the wider work to progress the Council’s Fleet Replacement Strategy. However, much of the actions the council takes to reduce climate change emissions and prepare for the impacts of our changing climate are embedded within work streams rather than being separate discrete projects. Therefore, this amount does not include the funding for wider actions which will have climate change implications in addition to their other purpose. For example, replacing old streetlights with lower emission upgrades, flood repairs and flood alleviation work, road repairs, replacement of vehicles at the end of their lifecycle with lower emissions vehicles, replacing broken heating systems in buildings and other maintenance improvements to council buildings and housing, active travel elements and public transport, climate change elements in local planning, moray growth deals and levelling up work etc. In addition, almost all applications for external funding will have to be CC compliant and support the journey to net zero.