At a meeting of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee, Nottingham City Councillor Sally Longford gave an update on Labour’s ambitious plans to make the city carbon neutral by 2028, highlighting how tackling climate change will bring significant benefits to all aspects of life with cleaner, healthier environments for all alongside greater economic opportunities.
Since 2019 Nottingham Labour has been delivering on its Carbon Neutral Nottingham 2028 (CN28) Action Plan. The latest data shows that since 2005, Nottingham Labour has reduced overall CO2 emissions in the City by 49.96% which is just over 1m tonnes of CO2. These reductions put the city in the top 10% of all local authorities for emissions reduction. A 57.7% reduction in per capita emissions makes Nottingham the highest for any UK core city.
Some of the key things Labour has achieved to make Nottingham greener includes:
• The City being considered one of the top 122 world cities for climate action (Carbon Disclosure Project)
• 1,700 city residents have signed up to Green Rewards app whose actions have avoided over 70t of CO2 going into the atmosphere
• City Council is now a bronze accredited carbon literate organisation
• Over 50% of the Council’s vehicle fleet is now ULEV
• Nottingham has the highest number of EV charge points per head of population for any UK core city and well above the national average
• 30% buses operating in the city are biogas or electric, with £15m funding secured this year for 78 new electric buses and charging infrastructure for NCT
• Since 2012, over 7,000 social and private hard-to-treat homes have been insulated; over 4,000 social housing properties have solar panels,
• In 2020, secured over £13m funding for domestic energy efficiency retrofits and with over 1,200 homes included in the domestic retrofit programme
• Over 24,000 new trees planted since 2019/20 (50,000 by 2023). 9,000 in last 12 months. When these are fully grown, they are capable of removing approximately 500k tonnes of CO2 every year
Commenting on Nottingham Labour’s success, Cllr Sally Longford said “Nottingham Labour believes we have a responsibility to safeguard our city for future generations. That’s why we’ve led nationally on this issue and put together the most ambitious carbon reduction plan to be the first carbon neutral city in the country. It is not only essential for the environment but will also improve everyone’s quality of life as the air we breathe will be cleaner, our bills cheaper and our neighbourhoods more attractive. The Council cannot do this on its own and I am pleased that so many businesses and organisations in the City are working with us to deliver on our ambitious target and advancing Nottingham’s reputation as a world leader in this area.”
Nationally, Keir Starmer has committed to making Britain a clean energy superpower if Labour win the next General Election, highlight it as a means to create jobs, cut bills and boost energy security with zero-carbon electricity by 2030, accelerating to net zero.