Climate Change Scrutiny Committee

 

7 July 2021

Report of the Head of Carbon Reduction

 

Portfolio of the Executive Member for Environment and Climate Change

 

Net Zero Carbon: Key Performance Indicators

 

Summary

 

1.         The Council has set an ambition for York to achieve net zero carbon by 2030. A set of performance indicators are required to monitor progress against this ambition.

 

2.         The Council Plan made a commitment to providing this data:

                     i.        Carbon emissions across the city

                    ii.        Level of CO2 emissions from council buildings and operations (Net emissions)

 

3.         KPI data will be reported on an annual basis

 

Background

 

4.         City of York Council (CYC) announced a climate emergency in March 2019; subsequently setting an ambition for York to be carbon neutral by 2030

5.         To monitor progress against this ambition, a standardised set of key performance indicators is required, covering both corporate emissions from CYC activity and city-wide emissions.

6.         The key performance indicators would cover two of the three data commitments to monitor progress of a Greener and Cleaner City in the Council Plan.[1]

7.         CYC last reported corporate emissions in 2011/12, with Scope 1 & Scope 2 CO2e emissions totalling 25,000 tonnes in that year. 

8.         In previous years, the ‘Emissions of carbon dioxide for Local Authority areas’[2] published by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy has been used to estimate emissions for the whole of York. This methodology tends to underestimate emissions compared to the SCATTER tool, which includes a greater number of data inputs.

 

9.         In 2020, CYC completed a detailed emissions inventory of the city for the first time, using the SCATTER Tool. Total emissions were 910,000 (Scope 1 and 2) or 1,121,660 (Scope 1, 2 and 3) for that year.

Corporate Emissions

 

10.      The proposed list of KPIs for corporate emissions is presented below:

Source

Unit

Total

CO2

Comments

CYC buildings - Electricity

kWh

 

 

Since 2019 all electricity consumed by CYC buildings is from 100% renewable sources

CYC buildings - Gas

kWh

 

 

Include summary of top emitting sites

CYC buildings - Water

ltrs

 

 

Not currently recorded

Corporate Waste

tonnes

 

 

Include split of recycling rates

CYC Fleet

ltrs/fuel type

 

 

Include number of electric vehicles and % of total CYC fleet

Business travel

miles/vehicle type

 

 

Separate journeys by vehicle type

Land use

Trees planted

 

 

Trees planted by CYC on our own land and used to offset corporate emissions

 

11.      Government published annual greenhouse gas conversion factors will be used to calculate the carbon emissions from each source[3] and the Woodland Carbon Code Calculator will be used to calculate emission savings from tree planting[4]

12.      A dashboard summarising the data will be provided, along with a report providing a more detailed breakdown.  

13.      The KPIs will be recorded annually, allowing for close monitoring of progress against our net zero ambition. Data will be made available through the York Open Data Platform and KPI machine.

 

14.      We are in the process of updating procurement policies to include information of supplier’s carbon emissions. At present, there is no reliable way of calculating our Scope 3 emissions; however, this will be included in the future following a review of procurement policy.

 

City Wide Emissions

15.      A city-wide emissions inventory will be compiled using the SCATTER Tool. SCATTER is a local authority focussed emissions tool developed using funding from The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS)

16.      SCATTER standardises greenhouse gas reporting and aligns to international frameworks, including the setting of targets in line with the Paris Climate Agreement. It is also compliant with the reporting standards of The Global Covenant of Mayors’ Common Reporting Framework (CRF) and Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP).

17.      The tool is free to use for all local authorities in the UK.

18.      The Performance Indicators generated from the SCATTER Tool are presented below:

Scope 1

Scope 2

Scope 3

Sector

Sub-sector

Total tCO2e

Total tCO2e

Total tCO2e

Total tCO2e

 

 

DIRECT

INDIRECT

OTHER

TOTAL

Stationary energy

Residential buildings

 

 

 

 

 

Commercial buildings & facilities

 

 

 

 

 

Institutional buildings & facilities

 

 

 

 

 

Industrial buildings & facilities

 

 

 

 

 

Agriculture

 

 

 

 

 

Fugitive emissions

 

 

 

 

Transportation

On-road

 

 

 

 

 

Rail

 

 

 

 

 

Waterborne navigation

 

 

 

 

 

Aviation

 

 

 

 

 

Off-road

 

 

 

 

Waste

Solid waste disposal

 

 

 

 

 

Biological treatment

 

 

 

 

 

Incineration and open burning

 

 

 

 

 

Wastewater

 

 

 

 

Industrial Process & Product

Industrial process

 

 

 

 

use

Industrial product use

 

 

 

 

Land Use

Livestock

 

 

 

 

 

Land use

 

 

 

 

 

Other AFOLU

 

 

 

 

Generation of grid-supplied

Electricity-only generation

 

 

 

 

energy

CHP generation

 

 

 

 

 

Heat/cold generation

 

 

 

 

 

Local renewable generation

 

 

 

 

 

19.      The approach is based on the Accounting and Reporting Standard developed by the Greenhouse Gas Protocol, the Global Protocol for Community-Scale Greenhouse Gas Emission Inventories.

20.      The datasets are drawn from publicly available information. Further information on the data and methodology is available at:
https://scatter-staging.anthesis.systems/pages/methodology/

21.      Latest data currently available is 2 years in arrears and reported annually.

22.      A Report Summary will be produced alongside the complete inventory and available data will be reported through the quarterly Financial & Performance monitors, which will include narrative on city actions when appropriate.

 

23.      To improve transparency and allow city partners and service providers to benefit from access, data will be made publicly available through the York Open Data Platform.

 

 

Council Plan

 

24.      The net zero carbon key performance indicators relates to the ambitions for York to achieve net carbon zero and the Greener and Cleaner outcome.

 

Implications

 

·           Financial – there are no financial implications

·           Human Resources (HR) – there are no HR implications

·           One Planet Council / Equalities – the activities described in this report support the ambitions to be a sustainable city.      

·           Legal – there are no legal implications in relation to this report.

·           Crime and Disorder – there are no crime and disorder implications in relation to this report.  

·           Information Technology (IT) – the majority of information being recorded is already captured in some format. Some of this information is reported through the York Open Data Platform. Consolidating this data into one place will make it easier for the public to access

·           Property – there are no property implications in relation to this report.

·           Other

 

Risk Management

 

23.  There are no known risks in relation to the recommendation of this report.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Contact Details

 

Author:

 

Shaun Gibbons

Head of Carbon Reduction

Corporate Strategy

 

Tel No. 07923 222971

 

 

Chief Officer Responsible for the report:

 

Claire Foale

Assistant Director Policy & Strategy

 

Report Approved

x

Date

29/06/2021

 

Wards Affected: 

All

X

 

 

 

 

For further information please contact the author of the report

 

 

Annexes

 

York SCATTER Summary Report 2020



[1] The third being a Citywide KPI on air quality

[2] https://data.gov.uk/dataset/723c243d-2f1a-4d27-8b61-cdb93e5b10ff/emissions-of-carbon-dioxide-for-local-authority-areas

[3] https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/government-conversion-factors-for-company-reporting

[4] https://woodlandcarboncode.org.uk/standard-and-guidance/3-carbon-sequestration/3-3-project-carbon-sequestration