An update on Cambridgeshire County Council’s progress to becoming a net zero organisation and fighting the impacts of climate change will be considered by Members at its Environment and Green Investment Committee next week (19th Jan)

Following the update of the Council’s Climate Change and Environment Strategy and its action plan last February, the council agreed a £2.175m investment from its ‘Just Transition’ fund, designed to increase the pace and scale of carbon emissions reductions across all its services.

So far the first phase of the council’s work includes

Developing plans for the decarbonisation of waste, highways, rural estate and schools, totalling £300k with tenders for the work due out this month, and 40 council buildings with tenders for work £109,000 due in February

Construction underway of two smart energy grids on the St Ives and Babraham park and ride sites – which will offer solar car ports, EV charging for a range of vehicles, battery storage and the ability to sell clean energy to local customers
The first 12 businesses going through the Council’s low carbon business support programme
A £2m investment into low carbon heating systems and other energy measures in seven Cambridgeshire schools beginning this month
852 Cambridgeshire households solar and/or battery installations completed in the year to December under the Solar Together scheme
The first five homes connected to the Swaffham Prior Community Heat project - (a BBC Radio Four Money Box programme on December 28th outlines more details of this scheme)

Internally 16 councillors and 105 officers have been trained on a one day Carbon Literacy Training programme, and a new Climate and Environment e-Learning module has also been developed to help the council’s whole workforce understand the basic science behind the issue and help them develop ideas for taking action in their service.

In the next six months

A further 100 homes are due to be connected to the Swaffham Prior Community Heat Network and will receive decarbonised heat and hot water
1589 further Cambridgeshire homes are due to have solar and battery solutions completed under the Solar Together scheme
A total of 30 businesses will have received low carbon business support

37MW of solar energy generation capacity will be ready from the North Angle Solar Farm
An audit of trees and significant hedgerows on all the council’s assets will begin to inform the Corporate Tree and Woodland and wider Biodiversity Strategies

“I am pleased that we are moving further and faster to deliver on our Net Zero ambitions and become a Greener, Fairer and more Caring Cambridgeshire,” said Cllr Lorna Dupré, Chair of the Environment and Green Investment Committee. “This is a result of our major overhaul of the Council’s Climate and Environment Strategy at the beginning of 2022. The effects of climate change and extreme weather events on Cambridgeshire are already evident, such as the recent extreme deterioration of our Fen roads. These are having a major impact on local people and council budgets, so we must do more and work even closer with partners.”.”

The committee begins at 10am on Thursday, 19th January at New Shire Hall in Alconbury, and can also be followed on The Council’s live stream