Staffordshire Council launches new climate change plan to reduce carbon emissions
Staffordshire County Council has launched a four-year plan to reduce the authority’s carbon emissions and achieve a net zero carbon target by 2050.
The plan will also have wider benefits working with partners to help residents and businesses achieve their carbon reduction goals.
The council has set out a series of actions up to 2025 to cut carbon further, improve air quality, reduce waste, improve the natural environment and support people in changing their behaviour to become more environmentally friendly.
Proposed actions include increasing the number of electric vehicle charging points across the county, improving the energy efficiency of all council owned buildings and further increasing recycling rates.
Staffordshire County Council’s cabinet member for environment, infrastructure and climate change, Simon Tagg said:
“We have made significant steps over the last year to set us in the right direction to achieve our net zero target.
“Now we are stepping up to advance this work by setting out a broad range of actions we are confident we can achieve over the next four years. It is crucial that this is a collective effort with our residents, schools, businesses and district and borough council partners.
“Since we declared a climate change emergency, we have demonstrated our commitment and drive to improve our environment. We understand that huge challenges lie ahead but are confident we can overcome these and deliver for our communities.”
The council will use low carbon vehicles in its own fleet and with bus operators, improve natural habitats maintained through tree planting and increase climate change awareness in schools.
Since it declared a climate change emergency a year ago, the county council has cut its carbon emissions by a quarter. This has been achieved mainly by transferring all corporate council buildings, maintained schools, streetlights and traffic signals to run on renewable energy.
In its first climate change annual report, the county council details steps it has taken to cut carbon emissions. The Climate Change Draft Action Plan and annual report will be discussed at next week’s cabinet meeting.
