Plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions published

Published on 15 July 2021

Clear measures for reducing greenhouse gas emissions related to Council activities across the High Peak have been published in the Climate Change Action Plan.

Since declaring a climate emergency almost two years ago, High Peak Borough Council and partners have been working on the development of an action plan to help achieve the goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2030.

Part One of the Action Plan sets out how the Council will achieve the net zero target for its own emissions. The key areas of activity for 2021/22 focus on:

·       Council housing - increasing efficiency ratings by increasing insulation and upgrading heating methods

·       The use of Council buildings - heat and power

·       Travel and transport - by councillors and staff

·       Procurement - the emissions associated with the products and services bought by the Council

Additional supporting activity includes the development of relevant staff skills; revising the Council's policies and strategies to ensure climate change is always considered as part of the decision making process; creating new green strategies; and putting steps in place to measure and report on performance.

Councillor Jean Todd, Executive Councillor for Climate Change, Environment and Community Safety, said: "I'm absolutely delighted that this part of the action plan has been agreed - it's a big step forward in documenting the practical measures the Council is taking to help achieve the goal of eliminating carbon dioxide emissions across the High Peak.

"It is unfortunate that this was delayed by Covid, but the silver lining is that travel was much reduced because of the need to have remote meetings. This will continue as far as possible and in line with the Government decision that certain decision-making meetings must take place in person.

"Part One of the Action Plan demonstrates how we're starting to making a real difference by working to ensure our operations and the activities within our control aren't increasing emissions and we're pro-actively moving towards significantly reducing them.

"Climate change is amongst the biggest global challenges we face and we owe it to ourselves and future generations to do what we can to mitigate the implications we're already seeing, and which we anticipate will only increase, on our lives and our environment."

Part Two of the Action Plan will detail how the Council, working with others, intends to help the whole Borough achieve net zero emissions. It is due to be published before the end of the year.

Councillor Todd added: "We've made great progress already but Part One of the plan is really just the start and we need to work in partnership with our communities, businesses and organisations if we are to meet our targets for the whole Borough - something we're already doing through, for example, our alliance with High Peak Green Network which is a group that represents all the community sustainable groups.

"It's not an easy task but it's one that we simply cannot afford to ignore. I look forward to the publication of the next stage of the Plan in the coming months and to doing what we can to make sure we are leaving our environment in a better state than we inherited."

You can read Part One of the Action Plan, and more about climate change, at www.highpeak.gov.uk/ClimateChange