Aberdeenshire Council now honest - no action on climate change

Aberdeenshire Council today decided not to sign up to 10:10.  My colleague Cllr Paul Johnston could not even get a seconder for other LibDems, the Tories or the SNP.   I understand that members of Policy and Resources felt that the Council couldn't make the minimum commitment of a 3% reduction in 2010 - and a reduction of 10% from their own baseline.

This is disappointing.

Aberdeenshire Council made good progress in reducing CO2 emissions in the early years of its commitments but reduction have since slowed.  A report to Scrutiny and Audit in December showed
  • the reduction in emissions over 3 years for Building and Property has been 3%, of which 2.9% was in the first year. 
  • the reduction of emission from waste to landfill has decreased by 15.4% but only 1.4% reduction has been achieved in the past year.
  • emissions from street lightling were static or slowing increasing initally but have grown by 5.2% over the past year
  • emissions from business mileage has increased every year and are now 5% higher than the base year.
However the Council was happy to support Earth Hour and issued a press release in support of 10:10.

Now one of the reasons I left the Liberal Democrats and joined the Greens was the gross disparity being saying and doing.  It looks like I was right.  LibDem* controlled Aberdeenshire likes to sign Climate Change Charters but when it comes to making commitments to deliver - nothing.  

*Cllr Paul Johnston is a LibDem but not part of the ruling Administration.  He is therefore excempt from criticism.

2 comments:

  1. Everybody is signing up to 10 : 10 and our council refuse to take part? Poor old Mr Salmond, after all those claims that Scotland is leading the world in CO2 emission reductions this happens in his own back-yard. Must be quite embarrassing.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Cllr Storr,
    I usually disagree with most of your comments, however.....I cannot understand why the council appearto be doing so little on climate change. There is a lot of talking about charters, and action plans, but are there any substantial projects being undertaken? more to the point, is there any money within the budget to deliver any projects??

    ReplyDelete

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