There’s been a considerable amount of broadcast time and newsprint devoted to the G7 summit in Cornwall over the past few days and there will be even more attention to climate change as we get closer to the COP26 conference in Scotland in November.

Often the scale of the challenge facing us all seems too vast to get to grips with. But I want to detail some of the things we’ve been doing in Devon on a county level and a local level.
Following last month’s elections, I was delighted to refresh my Cabinet with new faces including Feniton and Honiton county councillor, Phil Twiss, who becomes responsible for finance and Great Torrington councillor, Andrew Saywell, who will be in charge of organisational development, corporate services and digital transformation.

Phil obviously represents an East Devon seat as does our new chairman, Exmouth’s Jeff Trail.
Devon County Council is a big business with a turnover of more than one billion pounds a year and – as well as Phil and Andrew’s new Cabinet jobs – I also asked one of my senior colleagues, Andrea Davis, to take on the responsibility for climate change as part of her environment and transport portfolio.

There’s no doubt that, along with doing everything we can to ensure the Devon economy recovers from the effects of the pandemic, tackling climate change will be one of our major challenges.
Over the coming years Devon County Council will have a growing role in combating climate change and fulfilling our pledge for the authority to become net-zero carbon by 2030.
Climate change affects everyone in Devon as it does across the country and across the world and it's important that this crucial issue is reflected in all our discussions in Cabinet so I am delighted that Andrea has agreed to take on the job.
The fact that we are establishing this role is a measure of how seriously we take the issue. We've cut our carbon footprint by almost half as a county council and we are on target to become net-zero carbon by 2030.

We have ambitious plans for a cleaner, greener Devon with a thriving economy that will help us recover from the effects of the pandemic.
But we've got to get the recovery going whilst keeping our promise to reduce carbon emissions.
We will continue to invest in LED lighting on our streetlights. That both saves money and cuts our carbon emissions.
There will be more charging points for electric cars, solar panels on the roofs of our buildings and we are looking for more land to plant trees to offset our carbon footprint.
This is the right time to put climate change centre stage in Devon.
The county council has been a leading mover in setting up the Devon Climate Emergency Response Group which is a partnership of Devon’s councils, business groups, emergency services and voluntary organisations and our Chief Executive chairs the organisation.
We've been canvassing residents across the county to put themselves forward to join the Devon Climate Assembly this summer.
This will give 70 people the chance to represent their communities in contributing to the county’s climate roadmap, which outlines what every resident, business and organisation will have to do to reduce carbon emissions.

The Climate Assembly is the next stage of a transparent and democratic process to show us all how we can live and prosper in a carbon neutral society.
This is the goal of Devon’s Carbon Plan - to set out a clear roadmap of what we all have to do to ensure that Devon becomes net-zero and continues to thrive.