On Monday 6 September Camden invited members of the public to hear a presentation of Carbon Descent’s report on how it might reduce its emissions by 40% by 2020, compared to 2005. The meeting was chaired by Angela Mason, the Director for environment and a number of staff too. Friends of the Earth sent a delegation to the Council chamber a few months ago making this request so it was gratifying to see the Council so quickly produce a report setting out some ideas of how this might be achieved.
Two-thirds of the Boroughs emissions are from commercial and industrial, around third from home and a small amount from road transport. Since 2005, Camden’s emissions had grown by 2.6% by 2008. This means we have to reduce our emissions by 42.6%.
The consultants suggested a number of options to hit this target. Quite a large part (around 40%) would be achieved simply by grid electricity becoming partly decarbonised by 2020 through an increase in the amount of renewables and a shrinkage of the percentage coal. But Camden would have to increase the amount of solid wall insulation and CHP-district heating.
The report was a little quiet about the measures the commercial and industrial sector would take. Carbon Descent were negative about the amount of control the Council would have over businesses. Local renewables such as medium scale wind and micro-renewables like PV and solar hot water were not anticipated to make much of a difference.
Download Carbon Descent’s presentation
Download the full report – Meeting 40% Carbon Emissions Reductions by 2020
Angela Mason also launched the Camden Communities Green Fund which provides between £250 and £5000 to help local communities develop local projects.
(Thanks to Prashant Vaze, author Economical Environmentalist for the above summary of the event)