Preventing climate change (known as climate change mitigation) is about reducing our emissions of greenhouse gases. The most significant of these is carbon dioxide and emissions of this gas are often referred to as our ‘carbon footprint’.
Amongst Leicester’s long term goals is the ambition to become one of the ‘greenest’ cities in the country. “Reducing Our Carbon Footprint” is one of the city’s top priorities set in the One Leicester strategy.
Leicester City Council’s Carbon Footprint
Leicester’s Carbon Footprint
Leicester City Council’s Climate Change Mitigation Action Plan
A Climate Change Mitigation Action Plan for the City of Leicester
The City Council, along with all councils across England, has published its carbon reduction figures for the year 2010/11. The Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC) require all local authorities to submit information annually about their performance in reducing carbon emissions. DECC's request is for local authorities to follow the same guidance that was published for organisations by DECC and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) in September 2009. This guidance is available on the DEFRA website.
This report covers emissions produced from Leicester City Council's operations, its major contractors and city schools. However, reporting excludes activity from managing Council housing.
In 2010/11 the Council saw an increase in its carbon emissions of 1.3% from a baseline year of 2008/09. While this is disappointing, further analysis is needed to fully understand the figures and why we have not measured a reduction.
We have set ourselves a target to reduce our 'carbon footprint' by 50% by 2025. To do this we have outlined major projects that will help us save energy and fuel. These include investing in our buildings, reducing the electricity consumption of the Council’s IT systems, training our drivers in the most efficient driving techniques and developing Carbon Action Plans for each of our work areas.
For more detailed information about what we are doing please see Leicester City Council’s Climate Change Mitigation Action Plan.
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We have been working to reduce the City’s carbon footprint for a number of years and are seeing some good reductions. In 2005 the carbon footprint for the city stood at approximately 2 million tonnes and in 2008 that had dropped to approximately 1.9 million tonnes – a reduction of 100,000 tonnes in just 3 years.
Just as with our own emissions, we are aiming to have reduced this by 50% by 2025 (from the 1990 levels, in this case) so we have a lot of work to do.
There are many areas that we are working in to reduce Leicester’s carbon footprint including working with local businesses, reducing emission levels from transport and providing support to improve homes across the City.
For more detailed information about what we are doing please see A Climate Change Mitigation Strategy for the City of Leicester (hyperlink to document)
To strengthen our ambitions we are signatories to the Covenant of Mayors and the Nottingham Declaration.
You can help too! To find out what you can do at home or at work to reduce the carbon footprint of the city, please see our Energy Services page.
For details of our other environmental targets and work areas visit our Environmental Policies and Action page.
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