Council’s carbon footprint has reduced

South Lanarkshire Council’s carbon footprint has reduced by 56 per cent in the last 15 years.

Last year saw a 25 per cent reduction in carbon emissions, with a 55 per cent reduction in emissions from household waste the biggest factor.

Measured annually since 2005-06, the council’s carbon footprint has consistently reduced ahead of previous national targets.

However, the council are now on target with new national aims to reach net zero emissions by 2045.

At the first meeting of the council’s climate change and sustainability committee on Thursday, September 17, councillors were told that the council’s largest source of emissions was for electricity and heating its properties.

A report by Michael Mcglynn, director for community and enterprise, said:“the council’s carbon emissions in 2019-20 have reduced by over 56 per cent compared to the baseline year of 2005-06.

“The data for 2019-20 has used the most up to date conversion factors so a proportion of the reduction is due to the much reduced electricity conversion factor.

“Electricity consumption decreased by two per cent. Gas consumption increased very slightly due to the cooler weather in 2019-20, which has been corroborated by local degree day data which shows that there would have been a 1.4 per cent reduction if not for the outside temperature variance.

“Oil consumption showed a significant increase but this is because of new reporting arrangements making this year as accurate as it has ever been.

“Emissions from fuel used within our fleet has continued to reduce.the fleet has continued to downsize in relation to the size of vehicles, which has resulted in smaller, more efficient vehicles and a reduced fuel consumption.

“The final year of the LED street lighting replacement programme has achieved further savings.

“The ambitious project which started in June 2015 has achieved significant consumption savings of over 68 per cent.”

Part of the council’s electricity reduction is also due to the fact that electricity produced now is greener than in 2005.

Future carbon reduction targets set by the Scottish Government will require the council to reach a 75 per cent reduction by 2030 and 90 per cent by 2040 based on 1990 levels.

SLC estimate that the 2020 level is 71 per cent less than it would have been in 1990.