Clean energy pledge by council

LEICESTERSHIRE County Council has pledged to use 100 per cent clean energy by 2050.

The council has signed up to the UK100 campaign, ensuring that its energy will come from renewable sources such as wind, water and solar power and not from fossil fuels.

It is joined more than 80 local authorities across the country with similar ambitions.

Council leader Coun Nick Rushton said: “Climate change is an issue globally and we have a responsibility to ensure that we do all that we can to tackle the problem.

“Pledging our support to the campaign means we can work with communities and businesses in the county to change to a low carbon economy, which will help to secure an environmentally sustainable future.”

The county council already has a number of plans and strategies in place which has reduced its carbon footprint. They include:

• Carbon dioxide emissions in 2016/17 reducing by 37 per cent against the 2008/09 target;

• Gas usage in council buildings decreasing by 24 per cent; and

• Street lighting energy consumption decreasing by 24.7 per cent as a result of replacing them with energy-saving LEDs.

The authority is also supporting the Leicester and Leicestershire Enterprise Partnership (LLEP), to develop a Local Industrial Strategy (LIS). The LIS will set out how the local area will promote ‘clean growth’, one of the four grand challenges set out in the Government’s Industrial Strategy.