Equality impact assessment (EIA) form: evidencing paying due regard to protected characteristics

(Form updated April 2019)

York and North Yorkshire Routemap to Carbon Negative and Draft North Yorkshire Council Climate Change Strategy 2023-2030

If you would like this information in another language or format such as Braille, large print or audio, please contact the Communications Unit on 01609 53 2013 or email communications@northyorks.gov.uk.

Equality Impact Assessments (EIAs) are public documents.  EIAs accompanying reports going to County Councillors for decisions are published with the committee papers on our website and are available in hard copy at the relevant meeting.  To help people to find completed EIAs we also publish them in the Equality and Diversity section of our website.  This will help people to see for themselves how we have paid due regard in order to meet statutory requirements. 

Name of Directorate and Service Area	Central Services Policy, Partnerships and Communities
Lead Officer and contact details	Neil Irving, Assistant Director – Policy, Partnerships and Communities
Names and roles of other people involved in carrying out the EIA	Jos Holmes, Climate Change Policy Officer
How will you pay due regard? e.g. working group, individual officer	Individual officer with reference to climate change project leads within the council.
When did the due regard process start?	6.5.22

Section 1. Please describe briefly what this EIA is about. (e.g. are you starting a new service, changing how you do something, stopping doing something?)

Members will consider endorsing the York and North Yorkshire Routemap to Carbon Negative and undertaking a public consultation on the NYC Draft Climate Change Strategy. These are both ‘new’ policy documents which propose both continuation of existing actions and new activities.

Section 2. Why is this being proposed? What are the aims? What does the authority hope to achieve by it? (e.g. to save money, meet increased demand, do things in a better way.)

In response to international and national commitments on climate change to keep global temperature rise within 1.5^oc of preindustrial levels and reduce the emissions of greenhouse gases, both the policy documents considered propose the required response at the appropriate scale.  The aims of the NYC Draft Strategy are to respond to the declared Climate Emergency by reducing greenhouse gas emissions, adapting to climate change and to supporting nature.

Specifically related to Equalities is the ‘principle’ we have adopted (section 5) around Equality of opportunity. We want to enable equal access to the low carbon economy so that every person, business and community is able to take climate responsible action.

Section 3. What will change? What will be different for customers and/or staff?

The Routemap and the Draft NYC Climate Change Strategy identify the activities that need to be taken across NY to respond to the climate emergency. These are at strategic policy level, rather than specific localised actions, but within the general bounds of the 3 key objectives proposed are:

i. Mitigation: Reduce our impact on the climate by decreasing greenhouse gas emissions.

· Decrease production of the greenhouse gases by reducing energy demand and modernising agricultural processes.

· Generate and use low carbon energy such as solar power as an alternative to fossil fuels.

· Capture greenhouse gas emissions and storing them in organic sinks such as trees, hedgerows, grasslands, peat and seaweed (kelp) and capturing carbon from industrial processes.

ii. Adaptation: Prepare for the climate to change.

· Become a climate resilient Council

· Support communities to be climate resilient

· Respond to extreme events

· Ensure a resilient built environment

· Place nature at the heart of adaptation

iii. Support Nature: Help the natural world, on which we depend, to thrive.

· Partnership working

· Prioritise nature-based solutions

· Undertake statutory functions to support nature recovery

· Support nature through economic growth

· Ensure we practice sustainable land use of our ‘greenspaces’.

· Tree planting at scale

· Investigate new opportunities in the marine environment

Section 4. Involvement and consultation (What involvement and consultation has been done regarding the proposal and what are the results? What consultation will be needed and how will it be done?)

For the Routemap, between 2020 and 2021, the LEP led an extensive stakeholder engagement process, including workshop sessions, to challenge, refine and validate the scale of ambition targets as undertaken.

For the draft Climate Change Strategy has been developed through dialogue with a range of stakeholders such as the Local Government Reorganisation (LGR) Climate Change Working Group to ensure all current local authority activity is captured, through discussions with community environmental groups across North Yorkshire

The proposed public consultation will be timetabled for 8 weeks in the January 2023 to March 2023 period. The consultation process will be online and include 3 online events: For Town and Parish Councillors, for the voluntary and community sector and a session for the general public. A series of questions will be posed to guide responses as well as enabling open responses. There are proposals for a specific youth engagement event. In addition, reference copies will be available in the NYCC and community libraries with support, encouragement and advice from staff and volunteers for the public regarding how they can respond. It is proposed that the ‘Lets Talk’ platform also be utilised.

Section 5. What impact will this proposal have on council budgets? Will it be cost neutral, have increased cost or reduce costs?

Please explain briefly why this will be the result.

The decisions relating to this report do not in themselves require a financial commitment to be made. However, climate change activities and interventions will have financial implications. These range from income generation and budget saving opportunities through to low-cost behaviour change and to large scale capital investments. Investing in feasibility and business plans through the NYCC Beyond Carbon pump-priming fund (along with other external funding) has enabled financial capital and revenue bids to be made by creating an evidence base and there are opportunities for Shared Prosperity and Devolution Deal funding in the near future which the Council needs to be ready to grasp.  It is likely that local authority funding will be required to take forward prioritised schemes, either in full or as match funding with others and these would be the subject of future decision making as the opportunities are identified and evaluated.  Such schemes will need to be robustly assessed to determine that the climate change interventions represent good value for money.  All schemes will need to be considered in light of the financial environment and alongside other Council priorities.

Section 6. How will this proposal affect people with protected characteristics?	No impact	Make things better	Make things worse	Why will it have this effect? Provide evidence from engagement, consultation and/or service user data or demographic information etc.
Age	X			No impacts specific to people with this protected characteristic are anticipated
Disability		X		Reductions in air pollution due to reduced fossil fuel transport and improved housing due retrofit projects will positively impact on people with certain health conditions.
Sex	X			No impacts specific to people with this protected characteristic are anticipated.
Race	X			No impacts specific to people with this protected characteristic are anticipated.
Gender reassignment	X			No impacts specific to people with this protected characteristic are anticipated.
Sexual orientation	X			No impacts specific to people with this protected characteristic are anticipated.
Religion or belief	X			No impacts specific to people with this protected characteristic are anticipated.
Pregnancy or maternity	X			No impacts specific to people with this protected characteristic are anticipated.
Marriage or civil partnership	X			No impacts specific to people with this protected characteristic are anticipated.

Section 7. How will this proposal affect people who…	No impact	Make things better	Make things worse	Why will it have this effect? Provide evidence from engagement, consultation and/or service user data or demographic information etc.
..live in a rural area?		X		As a predominantly rural County, the Strategy reflects and responds to the issues to decarbonise sparsely populated areas. These include distances to key services and grid capacity. It makes reference to the Rural Commission and Task Force outcomes to support thriving rural communities.
…have a low income?		X		The Strategy refers to the principles and co benefits of climate change activities in section 5. These include local economic development opportunities (growing the low carbon economy and local training opportunities) and financial improvements by reducing energy costs for example.
…are carers (unpaid family or friend)?	x			No impacts specific to carers are noted.

Section 8. Geographic impact – Please detail where the impact will be (please tick all that apply)
North Yorkshire wide	ü
Craven district
Hambleton district
Harrogate district
Richmondshire district
Ryedale district
Scarborough district
Selby district
If you have ticked one or more districts, will specific town(s)/village(s) be particularly impacted? If so, please specify below.

Section 9. Will the proposal affect anyone more because of a combination of protected characteristics? (e.g. older women or young gay men) State what you think the effect may be and why, providing evidence from engagement, consultation and/or service user data or demographic information etc.

There is no evidence that the proposals will affect anyone more because of a combination of protected characteristics.

Section 10. Next steps to address the anticipated impact. Select one of the following options and explain why this has been chosen. (Remember: we have an anticipatory duty to make reasonable adjustments so that disabled people can access services and work for us)	Tick option chosen
1. No adverse impact - no major change needed to the proposal. There is no potential for discrimination or adverse impact identified.	ü
2. Adverse impact - adjust the proposal - The EIA identifies potential problems or missed opportunities. We will change our proposal to reduce or remove these adverse impacts, or we will achieve our aim in another way which will not make things worse for people.
3. Adverse impact - continue the proposal - The EIA identifies potential problems or missed opportunities. We cannot change our proposal to reduce or remove these adverse impacts, nor can we achieve our aim in another way which will not make things worse for people. (There must be compelling reasons for continuing with proposals which will have the most adverse impacts. Get advice from Legal Services)
4. Actual or potential unlawful discrimination - stop and remove the proposal – The EIA identifies actual or potential unlawful discrimination. It must be stopped.
Explanation of why option has been chosen. (Include any advice given by Legal Services.) Climate change will impact on all geographic areas and aspects of life and society. The Strategy outlines several activities which will support private business and community wealth building and thereby presents opportunities for everyone in the County to participate and to gain from the transition to the low carbon economy.

Section 11. If the proposal is to be implemented how will you find out how it is really affecting people? (How will you monitor and review the changes?)

Progress will be regularly monitored as part of our corporate performance management framework including climate change inclusion in quarterly performance reports to Management Board and specific Strategy updates to Overview and Scrutiny Committee and annual reports to Executive.

Section 12. Action plan. List any actions you need to take which have been identified in this EIA, including post implementation review to find out how the outcomes have been achieved in practice and what impacts there have actually been on people with protected characteristics.
Action	Lead	By when	Progress	Monitoring arrangements

Section 13. Summary Summarise the findings of your EIA, including impacts, recommendation in relation to addressing impacts, including any legal advice, and next steps. This summary should be used as part of the report to the decision maker.

Overall the Strategy’s aim is to reduce the impact of climate change on the residents and businesses of North Yorkshire. This is positive for everyone in the county, including those with protected characteristics. The Strategy recognises that we need to ensure everyone has equal access to the opportunities the transition to the low carbon economy presents and seeks to build community wealth and local economic prosperity whilst protecting people through adaptation plans.  Specific equality impact assessments will be carried out on decisions made in relation to actions in each area.

Section 14. Sign off section

This full EIA was completed by:

Name: Jos Holmes

Job title: Climate Change Policy Officer

Directorate: Central Services

Signature: J Holmes

Completion date: 04.01.23

Authorised by relevant Assistant Director (signature): Neil Irving

Date: 05.01.23