On 24 Jul 2014 a Freedom of Information request was sent to the City of York Council requesting information relating to the following Climate Emergency questions:
"Under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and Environmental Information Regulations 2004, I would like to request the following information (this request may cover both areas):
City of York Council declared a climate emergency in 2019
- Please provide the date City of York Council declared a Climate Emergency.
- Please provide City of York Council’s full definition of a Climate Emergency.
- Please provide a source to written policy, safeguards, procedures and processes City of York Council must follow when declaring this or any other emergency.
- Please provide the City of York Council’s ‘York Climate Change Risk Assessment’ used to declare York’s Climate Emergency.
- Please provide all evidence sources taken into consideration used to assess the risk, to declare a Climate Emergency in York: data sources, verbal presentations, expert consultation, evidence of climate change harms in York, etc., and how all this evince was quantified to declare an imminent and unacceptable risk to York.
- Please provide the mechanism by which City of York Council will know when the Climate Emergency in York is no longer a Climate Emergency."
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FOI/EIR response 13 August 2024
Please see below the response to your enquiry under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) or Environmental Information Regulations (EIR).
1. Please provide the date City of York Council declared a Climate Emergency.
- City of York Council approved a Full Council Motion to declare a Climate Emergency on March 21st 2019.
- Full Council Motion: https://democracy.york.gov.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=331&MID=10458#AI50279
2. Please provide City of York Council’s full definition of a Climate Emergency.
- As defined in City of York Council’s Climate Change Strategy’s Glossary of Terms – Climate Emergency: a situation in which urgent action is required to reduce or halt climate change and avoid potentially irreversible damage resulting from it.
- Climate Change Strategy https://www.york.gov.uk/downloads/file/8948/york-climate-change-strategy-2022-to-2032
- In ‘A Net Zero Carbon Roadmap for York’, the Climate Emergency’s underpinning context is defined as “IPCC suggests that we will have used up the global carbon budget that gives us a good chance of limiting warming to 1.5°C degrees within a decade. This science underpins calls for the declaration of a climate emergency”.
- ‘A Net Zero Carbon Roadmap for York’ https://democracy.york.gov.uk/documents/s144434/Annex%201%20-%20Zero%20Carbon%20Roadmap%20for%20York.pdf
3. Please provide a source to written policy, safeguards, procedures and processes City of York Council must follow when declaring this or any other emergency.
- In order to declare a climate emergency, a Full Council Motion was passed: https://democracy.york.gov.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=331&MID=10458#AI50279
- The Climate Emergency then went to Executive Decision Session to ensure Executive were aware of work against this commitment of the council and to allow the work in response to the Climate Emergency declaration to be progressed. Executive Decision Session: https://democracy.york.gov.uk/documents/s133825/Climate%20change%20-%20Final.pdf
- Scrutiny Climate Change Policy and Scrutiny Committee was set-up with remit to recommend to the Executive actions that will deliver the ambition approved in the Climate Emergency Motion at Full Council in March 2019: https://democracy.york.gov.uk/documents/g11660/Public%20reports%20pack%20Tuesday%2010-Sep-2019%2017.30%20Climate%20Emergency%20Policy%20and%20Scrutiny%20Committee.pdf?T=10
4. Please provide the City of York Council’s ‘York Climate Change Risk Assessment’ used to declare York’s Climate Emergency.
- City of York Council has a Risk and Vulnerabilities Report, used to declare ‘A Climate Ready York’.
- Risks and Vulnerabilities Report: https://democracy.york.gov.uk/documents/s171195/Annex%20D%20-%20York%20Climate%20Change%20Risks%20and%20Vulnerabilities%20Assessment%20-%20Revised%20Sept%202023.pdf
- City of York Council has a Climate Change Resilience Risk Report for York: https://democracy.york.gov.uk/documents/s171192/Annex%20A%20-%20Climate%20Change%20Resilience%20Risk%20for%20York.pdf
- The subsequent Council report responding to the Climate Emergency draws on further data sources https://democracy.york.gov.uk/documents/s133825/Climate%20change%20-%20Final.pdf
5. Please provide all evidence sources taken into consideration used to assess the risk, to declare a Climate Emergency in York: data sources, verbal presentations, expert consultation, evidence of climate change harms in York, etc., and how all this evince was quantified to declare an imminent and unacceptable risk to York.
- Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) report in Oct 2018. https://democracy.york.gov.uk/documents/g10458/Public%20reports%20pack%20Thursday%2021-Mar-2019%2018.30%20Council.pdf?T=10
- Verbal Presentations at Council Meeting/Public Participation. Members of the public spoke in relation to the Declaration of a Climate Emergency under the Council’s Public Participation Scheme https://democracy.york.gov.uk/documents/g10458/Printed%20minutes%20Thursday%2021-Mar-2019%2018.30%20Council.pdf?T=1
- Data Sources: Special Report on Global Warming 1.5oc https://www.ipcc.ch/sr15/
6. Please provide the mechanism by which City of York Council will know when the Climate Emergency in York is no longer a Climate Emergency.
- When the 1.5oc of average global temperature increase has been avoided, with emissions reported in York’s City-Wide Emissions Inventory reaching net zero. Annual reports published at https://democracy.york.gov.uk/uuCoverPage.aspx?bcr=1
- The emissions report will be verified by the following mechanisms: Climate Change and Natural Capital Programme Board, Executive Member Decision Session, and Corporate Services, Climate Change and Scrutiny Management Committee.
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Yours sincerely,
Updates to follow...