57% fall marks Nottingham as leader in cutting carbon emissions
Slashing fumes by more than any other core city in the country, East Midlands policymakers have now outlined plans to go even further.
According to the local authority’s latest review, Nottingham has managed to cut carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by 57.7% in the last 15 years – more than any other core city in the country.
Now the council’s leaders have set sights on another groundbreaking milestone, namely achieving carbon neutrality by 2028, the most ambitious climate and environmental target in the country. If this happens, Nottingham’s reputation among the most climate conscious cities in the world will only increase.
In order to deliver the record emissions cuts, a number of policies and initiatives have been employed. Over the past year, this has included hitting the halfway mark in the bid to make the council’s vehicle fleet electric, with 50% now running on electric, while local buses are now 30% electric or biogas. Work on an innovative wireless taxi pilot has also begun, installing charge pads on roads so cab drivers with the necessary equipment can easily power up without plugging in when parked over the system.
13,000 energy efficient home improvements for social and privately owned housing have been installed through Greener HousiNG schemes, with 9,000 trees planted in the last 12 months, helping lower urban temperatures. All of which is in addition to new flood management schemes, and the redistribution of thousands of kilos of food otherwise destined for waste bins, through the FareShare Midlands project.
‘I’m pleased that we are continuing to reduce CO2 emissions in Nottingham. To have the highest per person reduction of emissions of any core city in the UK is impressive and shows the hard work that we’ve been doing across the council and city,’ said Cllr Sally Longford, Portfolio Holder for Energy, Environment, and Waste Services.
‘However, we need to do even more. This year we’ve seen even more extreme weather events at home and around the world, so we can’t be complacent with the progress we’ve made to date. Together, the City Council, partner organisations, and the residents of Nottingham can come together to do our bit to tackle the climate crisis,’ she continued.
Image: Tom Podmore
I didn’t think an excessive amount of CO2 made fumes? Or produced a yellow sky and haze. Am i wrong? I would have thought fumes, coloued sky and haze come mroe from NO2 and fine particulates? Maybe even ozone. But not CO2. Can we please know, Martin, about the other kinds of air emissions in Nottingham? The ones that count as proper air pollution. I know the US EPA and maybe the EU too have terned the dangeorus excess of CO2 in the atmosphere as a pollutant but wasn’t that purely so that they could be seen to be tackling it and to bring in legislation? I know the CO2 levels are way beyond that is good for life-as-we-know-it but we do exhale CO2, do we not? And it is essential for life on Earth. It is the massivley excessive amount of it in the air now that is the problem. Its’ great to know that Nottingham has been working wodners to bring their CO2 level down but the air doens’t recognise town boundaries, does it? is there any satellite imaging, or any other technoliyg that can show people in Nottingham are now living in a grealty reduced CO2 zone? But, yes, it is good that Nottingham is doing something important to help and I hope other cities follow this good example. And I’d like to know about the other emissions in Nottingham, please.