The council’s updated Corporate Carbon Reduction Plan published on 27 September highlights the significant steps forward that have been taken, including completing one of London’s biggest school retrofit programmes, social housing energy efficiency improvements, reducing flood risk and boosting recycling and reuse.
The council has worked to reduce emissions from its own operations and has established a Climate Partnership with key anchor institutions in the borough to achieve the same. The borough-wide goals are set out on Lambeth’s Climate Partnership platform.
Cllr Rezina Chowdhury, Lambeth’s Deputy leader & Cabinet Member for Sustainable Lambeth & Clean Air, said: “Since becoming the first London borough to declare a climate emergency in 2019, the council has made significant progress across a wide range of areas, despite the financial challenges facing local government.
“We have focused on cutting emissions from the buildings we own and operate, our schools, our council homes and the services we provide. We’ve looked across the wider borough and are collaborating with other major organisations in Lambeth so we can work together on this agenda.
“We have not had the requisite financial support from successive governments over the last decade to make the progress required. Looking ahead, we are hopeful of a step-change in the levels of Government support to accelerate our programme and transition our buildings and energy systems to help us tackle the climate injustice that affects our communities.”
The updated Corporate Carbon Reduction Plan draws on the work undertaken over the last five years, setting actions and priorities for the coming years. It also presents the scale of resources needed to meet the council’s net zero 2030 target.
It highlights that, at present, the cost of retrofitting all council-owned buildings would be five times the council’s annual budget, and cuts to local government funding, inflation and the rise in interest rates all present challenges to reaching our goals.
The new report focuses its recommendations on where the council has the greatest control and influence over its carbon emissions and clearly sets out how impacts will be assessed and reported on.
Cllr Chowdhury said: “The scale of the challenge ahead is daunting, and one organisations all across the country face. In Lambeth, we believe in the power of local action and are committed to making the change we need to tackle emissions and give the next generations a just future.
“We now need to be more ambitious as a country to achieve net zero and unite around this critically important agenda.”
Read Lambeth’s Corporate Carbon Reduction Plan online
