Funding is a “significant risk that Council will not meet the net zero emissions target by 2030”

Audit Wales have said there is “a significant risk” that Wrexham Council will not meet the net zero emissions target by 2030 as the authority has not identified all the resources required to doso – including capital funding.

Back in 2019 Wrexham Council declared a climate and ecological emergency.

In a new letter to the council Audit Wales notes the council currently has a specific resource ringfenced for decarbonisation called the “Carbon Emissions Reserve” of £661k which it uses to pump prime projects and undertake feasibility studies to expedite any potential grant funding for Carbon projects.

However, they add, “services need to undertake further work to develop the cost benefit and carbon impacts analysis of planned interventions.”

The detail emerged following an assessment of the council’s arrangements to develop and deliver their Decarbonisation Plan, “The Council has a good understanding of the risks and opportunities around climate change and this knowledge has informed its Decarbonisation Plan. The Council has undertaken work to understand its emissions footprint.

“The Council is also undertaking an audit to understand the full potential for decarbonisation within its asset base and its re-evaluation of its footprint data. Once complete the improved data should help enable the Council to better understand the gap between current activity and its net zero 2030 target, and if its planned actions will enable it to deliver Net Zero.”

Audit Wales have made two recceomendations to Wrexham Council: