The Partnership has strategic action plans which detail actions to be delivered with stakeholders and partners before 2030.
The Partnership meets regularly throughout the year to monitor progress against these actions. The action plans are regularly reviewed to reflect relevance and priority in relation to the national and regional context.
The Partnership’s work focusses on:
Adaptation
Hertfordshire is already experiencing an increase in the number and severity of flooding events and extreme heat events, both of which are linked to climate change. These events affect council services, public health, and the wellbeing of residents. While reducing greenhouse gas emissions remains essential to limit the severity of future impacts, we must also adapt to the changes already underway.
Councils, businesses and residents must work together to identify the risks that climate change poses to our daily lives, remove or reduce those risks to a manageable level and build resilience to a changing climate.
HCCSP originally had separate workstreams for Water and for Adaptation. Recognising that these issues are closely connected, particularly given the county’s geography and water systems, they have now been brought together. The Adaptation subgroup is leading this work and is developing a countywide climate risk register and a climate adaptation plan to help Hertfordshire prepare for and respond to the challenges ahead.
Behaviour Change
Encouraging positive behaviour change is central to achieving Hertfordshire’s ambition of reaching Net Zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. It means supporting individuals and communities to make choices that reduce emissions and improve sustainability, through actions that become part of everyday life.
HCCSP developed a Behaviour Change Strategic Action Plan to bring together activities from across its initial workstreams with a behavioural element, using the capability, opportunity and motivation (COM-B) approach to guide thinking. While capacity has limited the progress of this work as a dedicated strand, behaviour change remains embedded within many of HCCSP’s ongoing priorities as well as those of our partner authorities, including active travel, public health and broader community engagement.
The Partnership continues to recognise the importance of behaviour change in creating long-term impact. We encourage best practice, share existing research to avoid duplication and promote approaches that strengthen community engagement with climate action.
Biodiversity
Hertfordshire has over 1,430 species that are currently threatened with extinction. This includes over 1,000 invertebrates and 260 plants. Protecting and restoring nature is vital for the county’s environment, wellbeing, and resilience to climate change.
HCCSP is a partner of the Hertfordshire Nature Recovery Partnership, a partnership between public, private and voluntary sectors. A key initiative is to publish a Local Nature Recovery Strategy (LNRS) which will map areas of habitat across Hertfordshire, agree local biodiversity priorities and identify where practical action would be most beneficial to create, enhance or cover habitat.
HCCSP originally had a separate Biodiversity workstream, but with the Environment Act 2021 designating Hertfordshire County Council as the lead authority for producing the LNRS, HCCSP’s role has shifted to supporting this countywide strategy as it is developed.
Carbon reduction
Reducing carbon emissions is central to county-wide approaches to tackle climate change. HCCSP is developing initiatives to and to agree targets for reducing emissions. The potential for joint initiatives working with businesses and the private sector will enable green growth and ensure successful delivery of our carbon reduction agenda.
Buildings and transport are the county’s largest sources of emissions. The carbon subgroup focuses on the built environment, while transport is addressed separately below. In recent years, HCCSP has supported local authorities to reduce organisational emissions, coordinate government funding such as the Warm Homes Local Grant and Warm Homes Social Housing, and accelerate progress on retrofitting buildings.
With over 80% of the buildings that will exist in 2050 already standing today, much of the focus has been on retrofitting existing homes and buildings, especially using the Local Area Retrofit Accelerator. In collaboration with training providers, businesses, community groups, HCCSP partners have produced a Commitment to Retrofit and Hertfordshire Retrofit Strategy. HCCSP partners have also agreed a set of Offsetting Principles to guide Hertfordshire local authorities if they decide to offset.
The partnership is also exploring how to account for the carbon sequestration value of green spaces within local authority assets. Looking ahead to Local Government Reorganisation in 2028, the subgroup is considering how to improve collaboration and efficiency and align work on operational initiatives such as fleet and building decarbonisation, and pursue county-wide actions such as renewable energy, circular economy initiatives and green finance.
Transport
While HCCSP originally had a dedicated Transport subgroup, the Hertfordshire Growth Board’s Transport for Hertfordshire mission is now the key stakeholder forum for countywide transport planning. The current focus is on supporting the development of the new Local Transport Plan. HCCSP’s role is to support this work by contributing to the consultation and helping to deliver shared objectives across the county.
Updates on our Strategic Action Plans
We have made the decision to remove our strategic action plans for the foreseeable future, as they are now out of date and with current changes we are focusing our efforts elsewhere. If you would like to see previous strategic action plans, please contact us.
We hold stakeholder webinars and events to update on progress and highlight the work of the partnership. Contact us for more information.
HCCSP Annual Event 2024 (Behind The Scenes)
The members of HCCSP came together to reflect, collaborate and co-create a Retrofit Strategy for Hertfordshire on 19 November.
2023: HCCSP Annual Event 2023 retrospective
2022: HCCSP Annual Event 2022 evaluation
Information:
Contact us if you'd like to find out more about our work – you can also join our mailing list to hear about future events.
Rate this web page