The Highland Council has launched its net zero strategy.
Launched at a meeting of the council’s Climate Change Committee on Thursday October 5, the strategy lays out the council’s plan to address the climate emergency and match Scotland’s legally binding target of achieving net zero by 2045.
Included in the plan are hitting interim targets of reducing emissions by at least 75 per cent by 2030, and by at least 90 per cent by 2040.
Leader of the council, Councillor Raymond Bremner, said the need for sustainability and a just transition would be at the heart of everything it did in pursuit of its net zero target.
He said: “Although the journey to net zero will be challenging, climate action can deliver comprehensive economic, environmental, social and health benefits. We must embrace the potential of the ‘green economy’ and nurture the development of new industries that create jobs and wealth.”
Chairperson of the Climate Change Committee, Councillor Karl Rosie, said that whilst the council had made good progress after declaring a climate and ecological emergency in 2019, a ‘business as usual’ approach would fail.
He said: “Transformational change is required across the council to integrate climate change mitigation, adaptation, and sustainability measures into all operations and service delivery. Embedding climate change into everyday decision-making will be critical.”
Lochaber’s Highland councillors said tackling the climate emergency was a large but important challenge.
Fort William and Ardnamurchan SNP councillor Sarah Fanet said: “Addressing the climate emergency is a huge challenge all local authorities have to face as changes in our behaviour and adaptation are both needed.
“We must capitalise on our region’s immense natural capital to deliver alternative energy solutions including developing solar, hydrogen, hydro, wind and wave solutions and ensure that it generates an economy that will benefit people in every part of the Highlands.”
Fellow Ward 21 councillor Kate Willis, who is chairperson of the Lochaber committee and vice chairperson of the Climate Change Committee, welcomed the launch of the strategy and said she is cautiously optimistic that the council is starting to take the climate and ecological emergency more seriously.
However, she added it is well aware of the difficulties ahead as the plan becomes embedded action across council services.
Councillor Willis said: “The challenges council faces are starkly highlighted in a recent report to the Climate Change Committee, which shows that council’s energy and fleet fuel consumption and emissions increased last year, and that the annual reduction in carbon emissions required to reach net zero targets has now risen from 8.5 per cent to 10.5 per cent due to a lack of action following the declaration of a climate and ecological emergency four years ago.”
The Highland Council’s net zero strategy can be found on its website.