Progress on climate and environmental change in Dorset has been slower than expected in some areas, according to a council summary report.

It warns that many of the actions are not only complex but will be on-going for many years, although claims that "two years since its adoption, considerable work has been undertaken and excellent progress has been made".

The report to councillors presented earlier this week says that the target of net zero by 2040 for the organisation remains in place, but is likely to be challenging.

Most of what has been achieved has been by winning government and other grants to support projects, with only a small percentage of funding for climate and ecological change actions coming from local funding.

One of the biggest awards was grant money was for £19million, which the council used to upgraded the energy efficiency of more than 200 buildings, with more than 350 renewable generation, heating or energy efficiency measures.

The report to the Place and Resources Scrutiny Committee from Climate & Ecology Policy Officer Carl Warom said that the Low Carbon Dorset programme is to continue offering advice and guidance, despite the loss of EU funding, and has achieved £6.2million in grant funding to local projects, while Healthy Homes Dorset recently won a further £4.3million of funding.

Not cutting verges has also had its benefits according to the report, with a doubling in butterfly species.

The council's recycling and composting rate of 59% puts the county in the top three unitary councils in England, with waste to landfill cut to just two per cent.

The report says that to continue making progress, the council will face many challenges.

It stated: "As the progress report notes, we will face ongoing constraints around resourcing – with progress highly contingent on winning competitive grants.

"Grid constraints, and the delay until national decisions are made on key policy such as on the role of hydrogen in heating and transport, will also present obstacles in renewable deployment and retrofit to an extent.

"We will need to step more into areas that are less familiar too, such as the food system, and will need to develop a strategic approach to difficult tasks like behaviour change and offsetting.

"And we must give far greater attention to the risks of now unavoidable warming, and the local impacts it will have."