Vale Council accelerates fight against climate change
The Vale of Glamorgan Council is set to cut carbon emissions
and reduce energy bills.
The Council is one of 45 new local authorities participating in
the fifth phase of the Carbon Trust’s Local Authority Carbon
Management (LACM) programme which, in the first four phases,
identified annual savings of more than £33 million and 500,000
tonnes of CO2.
The Trust is now working with 143 of the UK’s 468 local
authorities - just under one third - through the LACM
programme, which provides councils with practical advice on cutting
their carbon footprint and reducing energy costs. In the last phase
of the programme, local authorities on average committed to reduce
their identified carbon emissions by 20 per cent over the next five
years.
Cabinet Member Cllr Rob Curtis, Champion for Carbon Management,
said: "I am delighted that the Vale Council has been chosen to take
part in this initiative. I am a firm believer in councils setting
an example to the community in the way that we manage our energy
and carbon usage. By participating in this initiative, we can test
out some important initiatives, as well as reducing the cost of
services and make a contribution to the climate change and carbon
agendas."
Richard Rugg, Public Sector Programme Manager at the Carbon
Trust, said,
“Climate change is the biggest environmental threat currently
faced by the UK and the reduction of carbon emissions, the main
cause of climate change, should now be a key priority for all
organisations. Improving energy efficiency and, therefore, reducing
energy bills is crucial if local authorities are to make best use
of taxpayers' money.
“Given the success of the first four phases of our local
authority programme, we’re hugely excited by the prospect of
working with 45 more local authorities to establish good carbon
management practice."
The Local Authorities Carbon Management programme is designed to
deliver improved energy management to reduce emissions under the
direct control of the local authority such as buildings, vehicle
fleets, street-lighting and landfill sites. It also provides
practical support to organisations by helping them identify carbon
saving opportunities, providing tools to analyse energy consumption
and delivering workshop support for staff and senior managers to
enable them to ‘embed’ carbon management into the day-to-day
business of the council.
The fifth phase of the programme will run until March, 2008.