Carbon Neutral Strategy (FOI)

Request

Subsequent to the adoption of the "Carbon Neutral Strategy" by the States of Jersey can you please confirm what resources have been allocated to deliver this policy.

A

What budget has been approved?

B

How many people (staff or consultants) have been approved for this?

C

What budget has been allocated for these people?

D

Has the budget been altered as a result of Covid-19?

E

Have any interim reports been produced and if so where may they be accessed?

Response

The Carbon Neutral Strategy (adopted in February 2020) outlined a people-powered approach to developing a long-term climate action plan (now called the Carbon Neutral Roadmap) which will propose the detailed policies to transition Jersey to a low-carbon future. As outlined in the Strategy, a programme of work has been carried out which involved an Island-wide programme of engagement, Jersey’s Climate Conversation, including a Citizens’ Assembly. 

The Climate Emergency Fund (CEF), established by the Government in 2019, provides £23M of additional investment to support the delivery of the Carbon Neural Roadmap over the period 2022-26. This is however, not enough to tackle full decarbonisation. Investigation into potential new income streams from locally applied economic instruments will be investigated in the next term of Government (see Government Plan 2022-2026), and a long-term financing strategy will be produced to supplement the CEF.  

A

Expenditure from the Climate Emergency Fund is agreed in the Government Plan. The latest agreed allocation can be found in the Government Plan 2021-24 summarised in the table below. Due to the disruption of COVID-19, some allocated spend was unable to take place within 2020 and so rolled over into 2021 as follows:

Carbon Neutral Strategy Budget

In 2020 the £3.1M allocation for Sustainable Transport Policy (STP) initiatives was agreed but due to the delay caused by the Pandemic it is unlikely that this will be spent particularly when taking into account the rollover of unspent funds of £1.55M from 2020.

In addition to this, £307,000 of the Sustainability and Foresight team budget was allocated to the delivery of the Carbon Neutral Strategy (CNS). This included provision of the home energy audit subsidy scheme and commissioning of technical reports for 2021.

The proposed spend allocation for carbon neutral work can be found in the Proposed Government Plan 2022-2026 (page 173)

B

Existing resources

The five-person Sustainability and Foresight Team within GOJ’s Strategic Policy, Planning and Performance department are responsible for developing the Carbon Neutral Roadmap, as well as the Sustainable Transport Policy and other policy projects such as the recent introduction of the ban on sale of plastic bags and on-going work with other Crown Dependencies and the UK Government on issues of climate change, including the extension to Jersey of the UNFCC Paris Agreement. This team was already in existence and works to support ministers to develop policy in areas including energy, environment, strategic transport and long-term sustainability.

Additional resources

Three temporary members of staff at Assistant Policy Officer level were recruited following the development of the Carbon Neutral Strategy. These officers support policy development and help deliver the ‘strong start’ initiatives identified in both the Carbon Neural Strategy and the Sustainable Transport Policy. One additional existing

employee was seconded to the team to assist with the delivery of the citizens’ assembly, communications and engagement work and policy development which arose as a result of the agreement of the Carbon Neutral Strategy. A contract for services was also put in place to seek expert facilitation and design support to enable the delivery of Jersey’s Climate Conversation.

C

Existing resources – The budget for existing Sustainability and Foresight team members for 2021 is £385,000. The team work on a wide breadth of environmental and climate policy projects. Work relating to the Carbon Neutral Roadmap is just part of this but responding to P27/2019 and P.127/2019 dominated the work programme in the latter half of 2019.

Additional resources - £171,000 has been allocated for 2020 and 2021 to fund the additional team members described above. The contract for services for expert facilitation and design support for the citizens’ assembly came to a total of £172,320.

D

No budgets in this area were reduced as a result of COVID-19. Some CEF funded projects were delayed in 2020, for which funding was carried forward into 2021 (see table above). Total funding available within 2021 can be calculated by combining the 2020 rollover and the 2021 original allocation from the table above.

E

Since the publication of the Carbon Neutral Strategy, Jersey’s Citizens’ Assembly on Climate Change has met and concluded its work. All the information presented to the Citizens’ Assembly, including a series of factsheets and recorded information videos are available at www.climateconversation.je. The full report of the Citizens’ Assembly, including their recommendations can be found in the following link:

r.95-2021.pdf (gov.je)

Ministers’ Preferred Strategy for the carbon neutral roadmap – which responds to the Citizens’ Assembly – will be published in mid-October.

The detailed plan will be presented in the Carbon Neutral Roadmap which will be launched for consultation at the end of 2021 and brought forward to the States Assembly for debate in early 2022.