£4.7bn cost to make district carbon neutral by 2030

The authority pledged in 2019 to work towards making Cannock Chase carbon neutral by 2030 as part of its declaration of climate emergency.

A costed action plan of the measures needed to achieve this goal has now been published. And it revealed that it would cost around £4.7bn in capital investment to make the entire district carbon neutral by 2030, with £21m needed to do the groundwork.

The report, produced by consultants AECOM, also estimated that the district produced 361,200 kilo tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent each year. Cannock Chase Council’s proportion of this is 2,521 kilo tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent gases – just 0.7 per cent of total emissions, including those associated with waste collection.

The authority is now setting its sights on a revised target, which would see the 2030 goal become an organisational one only instead of district-wide. Cabinet members have also backed plans for the district to join up with a county-wide target for carbon neutrality.

A dedicated budget for reducing carbon dioxide emissions is due to be established as part of the overall budget setting process for 2023/24, while a new strategy for the council to reach net carbon zero by 2030 would be prepared, costed and brought back to cabinet. The proposals will be considered at a full council meeting on January 18.

Councillor Justin Johnson, environment and climate change portfolio leader, told fellow cabinet members at their latest meeting that the council had set one of the most ambitious targets compared to other authorities in Staffordshire back in 2019. The pledge was made when the council was under the previous administration, before the Conservatives took control in 2021.

“Staffordshire County Council has set a target for 2050 and East Staffordshire Borough Council have set a target for 2040 – only Staffordshire Moorlands District Council have set a 2030 target like we have and that was organisational, not the whole district”, Councillor Johnson said. “The highest amounts of CO2 are from the domestic sector, transport industry, commercial then finally the public sector.

“Two factors impact on the target, which are the Covid 19 pandemic and the current cost of living and energy crisis. The action plan has been put back two years because of the pandemic.

“The goal of (the district) becoming carbon neutral (by 2030) would cost £4.7bn, which is impossible for us to achieve on our own. We must set our sights on goals we can achieve.”

Council leader Olivia Lyons said: “The motion on climate emergency in 2019 was something we were supportive of at the time. We recognised the fact we absolutely needed to be declaring a climate emergency.

“We voiced concerns about the cost at that point and the fact we were making a commitment without any prior knowledge of what that would entail. It would effectively be like writing a blank cheque; £4.7bn is an enormous figure way beyond any budget we could dream of as a council.

“Reducing carbon emissions we can directly have an influence over by 2030 is an aspiration. We must, where we can, commit to 2030 – the rest is dependent on the private sector.”

Speaking after the meeting Councillor Johnson added: “We want to stress that cabinet is fully committed to achieving carbon neutrality. It is one of the council’s priority delivery plans and we are aware that one of the biggest roles that we as a council can play is as an influencer of what happens within our district, in regard to climate change.

“However, achieving carbon neutrality in Cannock Chase is going to be something we will all need to support and get involved in, whether as residents, businesses or as organisations like the council.

“The report to cabinet on the costed action plan showed that council officers have been working on 25 different community and organisational climate related projects in the past 18 months. These include working with the Energy Saving Trust on public electric vehicle charging infrastructure and low emission taxis; creating the council’s first Urban Forest at Bradbury Lane in Pye Green; and undertaking a climate change awareness campaign on social media, online and in the council’s magazine.

“AECOM’s plan is a helpful reality check on what will be needed to reach carbon neutrality and has provided extremely helpful information to guide us over the coming years. We also note that for many other organisations, including the Government, the target to become carbon neutral is post 2030.”