Glasgow City Council sets carbon neutral target for 2030

Glasgow City Council has announced that the city has been set a target of becoming carbon neutral by 2030.

Glasgow City Council sets carbon neutral target for 2030

The decision marks the city council’s formal acceptance of a key recommendation in the recent report carried out by Glasgow’s Climate Emergency Working Group.

The report outlined over 60 recommendations on how Glasgow should try to tackle climate change and follows the council’s declaration of a climate emergency earlier this year in May.

It also means that the previous target of net-zero carbon emissions has been brought forward by seven years.

Members of Glasgow City Council have also agreed that an implementation plan which indicates how the council will respond to the 61 recommendations made by the working group should be delivered by April 2020.

A plastic-free shopping zone and large tree planting programme will be considered alongside the low energy efficiency of the city’s older housing stock.

The implementation plan will also consider a wider roll-out of car-free zones at schools and other locations.

Established in February this year, the Climate Emergency Working Group was given only six months to draw its conclusions and report back to Glasgow council.

Anna Richardson, city convener for sustainability and carbon reduction, insisted the hard work to transform the recommendations into tangible actions must begin now.

She said: “The working group was given a significant task with a short timescale, and so I must thank Councillor Wardrop for providing thoughtful leadership and focus throughout. To receive a report with over 60 recommendations is daunting, but it highlights the breadth and depth of the response that will be required if we are to address the climate emergency. As a city we are already heading in the right direction, which is shown by having met our 2020 targets early, and also we have many projects already underway that will advance our efforts to decarbonise.”

Work already underway to accelerate the council’s effort to decarbonise includes the strategy for all council vehicles to be zero emissions by 2029, the introduction of a low emission zone for Glasgow city centre, development of a plastic reduction strategy, an electric vehicle strategy, a circular economy route map, a food-growing strategy, a wide range of active travel projects and a new local transport strategy.

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