Edinburgh faces £8bn bill to be carbon neutral by 2030

● Scheme includes sustainable tourist strategy and planning changes

Proposals to reduce Edinburgh’s carbon footprint by two thirds would cost an estimated £8 billion to the entire city over the next 11 years.

It will take the capital 16 years to see the amount saved from the plans overtake the cost of the investment.

The city council has set a target of the capital becoming carbon neutral by 2030 and has now laid out details of how that could be achieved and the potential cost.

The scheme includes overhauling how buildings are heated, a sustainable tourism strategy and calling on businesses and residents to play their part.

The remaining carbon is set to be removed by improved technology or by offsetting, which could include planting a new forest in the city.

Earlier this year, the council pledged that Edinburgh would become carbon neutral by 2030. Councillors will consider a “road map” to achieving this when the policy and sustainability committee meets on Friday.

Council leader Adam Mcvey has committed the city to a “massive expansion in recycling facilities” while all of the authority’s new buildings are set to be built to Passivhaus standard – using insulation and a heat recovery system to require no central heating.

A tourism strategy will be drawn up which will focus on a sustainable approach to the city’s tourist economy while the provision of electric vehicle charging will be accelerated.

Changes to planning guidance and the local development plan will mean developers could be subject to stricter sustainability and carbon rules, while some policies, particularity relating to listed buildings, could be relaxed.

Mr Mcvey insisted he doesn’t think this “will be a trade-off against our World Heritage status”.

The council will also write to all of its arm’s-length organisations, including Lothian buses, Edinburgh Leisure and the EICC, requiring them to adopt the 2030 carbon-neutral target.

Mr Mcvey said: “This is by no means an exhaustive list but it’s the next step we are taking to drive our own operations and services down to net zero. Edinburgh is probably one of the best placed cities in the world for meeting our carbon obligations and securing our climate future.

“Thebusinessdecisionsstack up just as much as the environmental ones. This is an agenda everyone wants to be part of.

“The city understands our obligation as a wealthy capital city of a developed western European country. If we can’t do it, I don’t think anyone on the planet can.”

The council’s proposals outline 37 immediate and shortterm actions across all areas of the authority’s business – including transport, housing, energy, education, tourism, culture and planning – to help achieve carbon neutrality. But the public sector only accounts for around 12 per cent of Edinburgh’s carbon emissions – meaning the private sector in the city will have a big role to play.

Depute council leader Cammy Day said: “We don’t have all the answers, which is why we are looking to the government and to universities to say what can we all do for the city? We need the whole city to play their part in it.”

A City of Edinburgh Climate Commission is set to be thisyear. Through the commission, a sustainability plan will be drawn up by the end of next year.