COLCHESTER Council has been told there is room for improvement in its climate emergency plan after an independent review.
The council is aiming to become carbon neutral by 2030, having declared a climate emergency in July 2019.
The council’s Climate Emergency Action Plan has been reviewed, alongside all other local authorities in the UK, by Climate Emergency UK.
Overall, the council’s plan received a rating of 52 per cent, which performed above the national average of 43 per cent for district councils.
The council performed well in the sections of commitment and integration, community, engagement and communications and illustrating the co-benefits of climate action.
Simon Crow, council portfolio holder for environment and sustainability, said: “We welcome this review of our Climate Emergency Action Plan. The review demonstrates the positive work the council has done so far to tackle the climate challenge.
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“It is important for us to push on from here. This report highlights some areas for improvement, which we are committed to continue working on.
“I am proud we are taking the lead on sustainability and this report recognises the significant efforts that have been made to develop an effective, robust action plan.”
However, the review outlines several areas for improvement which Colchester Council says will be addressed by the programme board when it develops a new iteration of its action plan in 2022.
This plan will include updating existing actions, as well as adding in new actions for the coming years.
In response to the authority’s unanimous declaration of a climate emergency in 2019, council bosses commissioned the Carbon Trust to compile a report on the borough’s energy consumption.
The Carbon Trust measured the authority’s carbon footprint at 6,180 tCO2e, or tonnes of carbon dioxide.
Leisure World was the largest single emitter across the council’s portfolio, accounting for 35.3 per cent of these emissions.
Most of the emissions, 76.7 per cent, come from stationary emitters, like buildings and light sources, whilst gas emissions account for 60.8 per cent of the total.
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