Carbon Management Plan
Reducing carbon pollution and energy costs
Lincolnshire County Council has signed up through Climate Local to tackling causes and effects of climate change. Tackling the causes requires us to reduce carbon emissions. This will reduce energy bills.
To embed this approach into the way we work we were one of the first authorities that took part in the Carbon Trust Local Authority Carbon Management programme in 2006-7. The programme aimed to help us understand our emissions and to improve energy management and reduce emissions under the direct control of the local authority such as buildings, vehicle fleets, and street-lighting. That plan was adopted in June 2007, covered 2007-12 and included an aspirational target to reduce emissions by 20% on a wide scope. Data collection issues (now resolved) mean it is difficult to accurately assess reductions in emissions from the original (inaccurate) 2006-7 baseline. Significant progress has been made and the most recent figures show a 9% reduction in Council Greenhouse Gas Emissions last financial year. Over £1.9 million has been invested providing annual savings of over £550,000 and reducing base costs permanently. In addition over 700kW of solar pv has been installed on County Council buildings and schools. Automatic metering is now complete on over 1000 LCC and school gas and electric meters providing half hourly data on energy consumption.
In 2013 we adopted a second Carbon Management Plan to cover 2013-18. The second plan establishes a 2011-12 baseline for emissions and sets a target to reduce them by 22% by 2018.
It is estimated that the county is directly responsible for about 83,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions per year. We publish an annual report on Greenhouse Gas Emissions. In comparison each Lincolnshire citizen is responsible for about 12 tonnes per year.
