Oxfordshire County Council’s net zero initiatives are set to ramp up over the next three years as the cabinet approve new plans that have the potential to cut its own carbon emissions in half by 2025.
The strategy will see the council encourage active travelling, improving electric vehicle infrastructure, encouraging change in behaviour among businesses and residents and providing support for households in fuel poverty. Another key part of the strategy is the goal to convert all of the county’s streetlights to low-energy LED lighting, with almost half being changed so far. This part of the project alone will save residents up to £77 million a year in taxes, over a 20-year period.
Oxfordshire County Council’s Cabinet Member for Climate Change and Environment, Pete Sudbury, said:
“I’m delighted at the dedication and skill of our small climate change team and how far we’ve come in a year. As an organisation, we’re continuing as an exemplar in reducing our own direct emissions.
But now we’re also driving forward to decarbonise our supply chains and taking a lead on work with partners and other organisations to extend this work across the whole of Oxfordshire.
The climate change committee’s recent risk assessment tells us that we need to move with alacrity to protect our citizens, organisations, and businesses from the dangerous and accelerating impacts of climate change in our own country.
That will be our priority for the next year, and we will be looking to involve as many individuals, groups, and organisations as we can in this critical task.”
In 2020/21, the produced over ten and a half thousand tonnes of carbon dioxide, however the strategy employed has the potential to see this almost halved within three years.
