REDUCING carbon emissions from its leisure centres, boosting biodiversity along the city’s waterways, improving recycling rates and launching a public bike hire scheme are among the measures planned as Worcester City Council forges ahead with action to help the city become carbon neutral.
At November’s Environment Committee meeting, councillors will be asked to back an updated Environmental Sustainability Strategy, first adopted by the council in 2020.
Its Action Plan for 2023 to 24 will continue to seek to reduce carbon emissions from the council’s operations as well as from Worcester homes, businesses and transport, and to bring environmental improvements across the city.
If the Action Plan is approved, a proposal will be made for an initial budget of £150,000 to be allocated to build on the work done so far to make the city greener.
Coun Karen Lewing, vice chair of the Environment Committee, said: “Both Worcester and the City Council have made some good progress on the journey to becoming carbon neutral. However, there is much more to do and that is why I believe it is essential that the committee supports the action plan and the proposal for additional funding for this vital work.”
The carbon emissions of the council and the city are calculated annually, and in 2020 Worcester had the lowest emissions per-head of all Worcestershire districts. The figure was also significantly lower than the national average, partly because of the absence of motorways and major roads within the city boundary.
Carbon dioxide emissions for Worcester have more than halved since 2005. Between 2019 and 2020, the city saw a 10.4 per cent reduction in CO2 emissions.
The main sources of recorded emissions in Worcester for 2020 were from homes (41 per cent) and transport (30 per cent), followed by industry (13 per cent).
2020 saw widespread restrictions on travel because of the pandemic, so it is expected that figures for 2021 and 2022 will show a decrease in emissions from homes, but an increase in travel-related emissions.
Electricity used across all City Council sites is from green, renewable sources. As part of the proposed 2023-24 action plan, officers will continue to investigate sustainable and affordable alternatives to gas for the powering of council buildings in the future.
For the first time, the City Council has included CO2 emissions from Perdiswell, St. Johns and Nunnery Wood leisure centres in its carbon footprint for 2021-22. Emissions across those three sites made up 32.8 per cent of the City Council’s total carbon footprint.
Freedom Leisure, which operates the leisure centres on the City Council’s behalf, has already taken steps to reduce emissions, but the Council plans to help find long-term viable solutions, including the possibility of installing solar panels at Perdiswell Leisure Centre.
