On 29 September 2014 Council agreed to support the Covenant of Mayors initiative and authorised the Lord Mayor to sign the Covenant adhesion form. By signing up to the Covenant of Mayors the Council committed to submit a Sustainable Energy Action Plan (SEAP) for the City of Oxford. The SEAP does not set any new targets but estimates our baseline emissions in 2005 and captures the actions and policies that the Council and its partners are implementing to reduce carbon emissions. These actions will help to meet the Council’s target of reducing carbon emissions by 40% by 2020 across the whole city. This report will request approval of our aims, objectives and emission reduction target for the City and adoption of the action plan attached to the Sustainable Energy Strategy.

Council considered a report submitted to the City Executive Board on15 December seeking approval for the publication and submission of Oxford’s sustainable energy action plan (‘Low Carbon Oxford: A Route Map to 2020’) to the EU Covenant of Mayors scheme.

Council noted that the submission of the Sustainable Energy Action Plan to the Covenant of Mayors fulfils the Council’s decision of 20 July 2015 to sign up to the Compact of Mayors as these two initiatives are merging into a single global initiative.