PROGRESS in meeting climate targets must not give rise to complacency, the deputy leader of Caerphilly County Borough Council has warned.
Cllr Jamie Pritchard said the local authority was “working effectively to drive down emissions”, and had recorded a decrease of 4.6 million tonnes of carbon dioxide generated last year.
That means the council reduced its CO2 emissions by nearly 5% compared to the previous year’s output.
Cllr Pritchard praised staff for the progress in meeting the aims of the council’s decarbonisation strategy, which compels it to become “net zero” by 2030.
He said that although a new report “shows action is being delivered to tackle climate change, and takes us closer to becoming net zero, we are not complacent”.
“We will continue to drive down emissions by following up several actions and making improvements where we have not seen enough of a shift,” he added. “Critically, more awareness in the community and among elected members is required.”
The same report shows that while the council is generally completing the decarbonisation action plan’s targets or making good or reasonable progress, it is judged to have made “poor” progress against around one in seven aims.
The council’s environment scrutiny committee discussed the report at a meeting, on Tuesday February 11.
Cllr Judith Pritchard noted the work of the local authority’s decarbonisation team but said more staff should be hired to help the council tackle climate change.
“It’s very important we keep as many people working on this as possible,” she said, adding that the council should also look to clamp down on drivers idling their vehicles.
Cllr Bob Owen asked whether the local authority’s officers “really think we can be carbon neutral by 2030”.
Ben Winstanley, the head of land and property, said the target is “something the Welsh Government has imposed or asked us to do in the public sector as a whole”.
He said the council is “still refining the way we calculate emissions” but will “give it the best shot we possibly can”.
The cost of decarbonisation is also a factor in the council’s work, however.
Mr Winstanley said “anything is achievable with enough financial backing”.
But the council report notes “calculating the cost of becoming carbon neutral by 2030 is extremely difficult”.
The decarbonisation team will make the costing of this work a “key action” for the coming financial year, according to the report.
