Ceredigion County Council

Ceredigion County Council continues to strive to reduce carbon emissions and achieve net carbon zero by 2030.

An Annual Review of the Carbon Management Plan for 2017-2023 was reported to Cabinet on 2 November 2021 which highlighted the annual achievements.

The plan includes targets for reductions in CO₂ emissions from energy use, fuel consumption and business miles. It identifies the principal areas of energy use and contains the Council’s strategy for reducing carbon emissions by at least 15% from 2017/18 to the end of 2022/23.

Ceredigion’s actual emissions during 2020/21 were 6,161 t/CO₂ – equating to a 1,478t or 19.35% reduction in CO₂ against the previous year and 2,488 t/CO₂ compared with the current Plan’s 2017/18 baseline year. This is equivalent to a 28.77% reduction over the current Plan period, which meets and exceeds the 15% target set to be achieved over 5 years to 2022/23.

Since 2007/08, when the first Carbon Management Plan’s baseline emissions were set, Ceredigion emissions have reduced by 9,659 tonnes of CO₂, equivalent to a 61% reduction.

Councillor Alun Williams, Ceredigion County Council Cabinet Member and Champion for Sustainability, said: “With the COP 26 conference going on in Glasgow there is no better week to present the latest report on the work Ceredigion is doing to reduce our carbon emissions. It’s important to mention that we were on schedule to achieve a reduction of around 14% in our carbon emissions before COVID-19 came along. The report also shows our latest position after 18 months or so of COVID-19 – we have achieved a reduction of 28.77% in the Council’s carbon emissions compared to the baseline year of 2017/18. So COVID-19 has effectively doubled what was already a good figure for reduced carbon emissions by the Council. The important thing is to learn the lessons that these figures teach us. To learn which of the reductions we can reasonably expect to reverse a little and which we can make permanent by changing the ways we work.”

The Council’s Carbon Management Plan and Net Zero Action Plan supports the Local Authority’s Corporate Priorities and the Well-being of Future Generations Act.

02/11/2021