Cabinet is being asked to approve Swale Borough Council’s action plan to tackle the climate and ecological emergency around the borough.
The action plan outlines the steps the council will take towards making their operation carbon neutral by 2025, followed by the borough in 2030, in areas including transport, air quality, buildings, ecology and biodiversity, resource consumption and waste.
The decision whether to approve the action plan will be made at the council’s cabinet meeting later this month on Earth Day (22nd Apr).
Earth Day is an international day of action held each year to encourage people to come together and drive transformative change for the people and the planet.
Cllr Tim Valentine, cabinet member for the environment at the council, said:
“We declared a climate emergency last year and committed to draw up an action plan that would take us towards our goal of making our own operations carbon neutral by 2025, and the borough by 2030.
The action plan outlines how we will provide leadership, engage with businesses, organisations and residents, and improve the energy efficiency of our transport system, housing and council properties.
It also outlines how we will work to safeguard our wild places, ancient woodlands and hedgerows.
Since we took office last year, we have planted 2,500 trees, had our air quality action plan approved by the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (DEFRA) and plan to replace our current fleet with new electric vehicles later this year.
If approved, the climate and ecological emergency action plan will give us a clear path forward to lobby for powers, resources and funding from the government to help us reach our targets.
We are committed to reaching our targets but cannot do it alone, and will look to work closely with our partners, Kent County Council, businesses, schools and local community groups to help us deliver the actions in the plan.”
People can see the draft report here
Swale Borough Council
Space
