11.7.23

A £300,000 fund to support Cardiff's journey towards becoming carbon neutral and help further embed climate change awareness in decisions taken by Cardiff Council, has been announced.

The funding from Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), for the ‘Let's Go Net Zero' project will be used to accelerate the behaviour change within Cardiff Council that has already seen:

• emissions from council buildings fall from 40,000 tonnes in 2014/15 to just over 18,000 tonnes in 21/22 (excluding leisure centres);
• the start of a process to transition its fleet of vehicles to electric;
• the development of a new socially responsible procurement strategy;
• the development of highly energy-efficient sustainable new council homes.
• 50,000 new trees planted.
• multiple sustainable drainage schemes introduced.
• the development of a network of fully segregated cycleways.
• work commence on the delivery of a new, low carbon District Heat Network.
• a 9MW solar farm delivered at Lamby Way.

The funding will increase staff capacity to help ensure that low-carbon thinking is built into the day-to-day behaviour of council employees and the wider public sector, as well as the Council's decision-making, and investment strategies.

Cabinet Member for Climate Change, Cllr Caro Wild, said: "Since introducing our One Planet Cardiff strategy, good progress has been made to reduce the amount of carbon created by the Council's own operations. The latest figures show a 12% reduction in the space of a year, but we can and must go further.

"Responding to the challenge of climate change requires all of us to change the way we think and behave and as a Council it's important we try to lead by example. This funding will help us further analyse our own decision making and help us build low-carbon thinking into everything we do."