The Progressive Partnership for Powys

While slower to emerge, the climate and biodiversity emergencies are no less damaging in the long term than the housing and cost of living emergencies. Taking meaningful action as soon as possible will not only minimise the negative impacts in Powys but will make it much easier for communities to change to a more sustainable way of living.

We will actively engage with other stakeholders and consult with the public in developing a climate emergency strategy for the whole county; and invest in enabling its implementation. We will use the Council's assets to show clear leadership in achieving a target of net zero carbon emissions from Powys Council by 2030 and implement a five-year programme to decarbonise Council vehicles.

We will invest in our council homes to make them warmer and greener, with the energy costs more affordable for our tenants.

We will promote good energy efficiency standards in all housing, ensuring that independent and impartial advice is available to all householders and landlords to retrofit their homes.

We will use Council assets to promote community owned energy schemes, retrofitting our buildings to minimise energy consumption and maximise energy generation.

We will decarbonise our supply chain as we procure goods and services.

We will ensure that Council staff and Councillors have the resources to continue to work from their home or local neighbourhood wherever possible, cutting time spent on travel and reducing vehicle emissions.

We will ensure that Powys Council's landholdings are managed sustainably to promote biodiversity, low carbon food production, carbon sequestration and catchment water management.

Our major rivers are in decline due to pollution. We will press for an end to untreated sewage entering our rivers and ensure the proper regulation of agricultural and industrial waste; and will support our county farm tenants to develop appropriate waste and manure/slurry storage facilities.

We will ensure that a review of the Council's Development Plan takes greater account of the climate and ecological emergencies in determining planning policies.

In determining planning applications, we will take steps to enable the cumulative impact on the environment of an over concentration of any particular form of development can be a valid consideration.

We will promote our county as a leader in sustainable tourism. Powys offers places to visit and enjoy a holiday while doing minimal damage to the environment.

We will explore the use of 'cut and collect' management of roadside verges to promote biodiversity.

Our landscape holds immense potential for both supporting wildlife and sequestering carbon, all within a vibrant land management economy. We will actively support partnerships and programmes to increase woodland cover, with the appropriate trees in the appropriate places, such as unproductive land within the farmed landscape. And we will support projects that manage our soil and watercourses to reduce flooding and increase carbon sequestration.

We will ensure that climate literacy is promoted in our communities, and partner organisations, and that climate literacy is better embedded across Councillors and Council staff.