CAMBRIDGE City Council’s Annual Climate Change Strategy Report was highlighted at the Environment and Community Scrutiny Committee meeting, held on Thursday 6 October 2022, which recapped on a series of projects Cambridge City Council has undertaken in the last year to reduce the council’s own carbon emissions and to support residents and business to reduce Cambridge’s emissions overall.

Electric Vehicle charging

The council has worked to increase electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure:

• 18 chargers for taxis have been installed with a further three to be completed by the end of the year.
• The council is working with Connected Kerb to provide a network of approximately 800 charging points in the council’s car parks. The first 56 chargers will be installed at Castle Hill, Adam and Eve and Gwydir Street pay and display car parks by the end of October.
• The council is also working with Cambridgeshire County Council and UK Power Networks to facilitate charging points for residents.42 charge points are being installed in West Chesterton and Abbey wards as part of a pilot project

Food and waste

• The Greater Cambridge Shared Waste Service’s food waste collection trial continued in different parts of Cambridge to reduce waste and increase recycling. These trials showed that separate weekly food waste collections significantly increased the volume of food waste recycled per household and reduced food waste. Food waste in landfill produces methane and is a big contributor to emissions – through recycling it can instead be turned into compost and used by farmers. Less food waste overall also results in less energy being used to process the waste, helping to reduce carbon emissions.
• The food waste collected in the trial collection is composted along with the city's green bin waste so for all residents not in the trial area we ask that you continue to put all food waste in your green bin to ensure the same carbon reduction outcomes including a reduction in methane from our local landfill site.

Biodiversity

• To make the city more resilient to climate change and increase biodiversity, the council agreed its 2022 – 2030 Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan in June. During 2021-22 the council planted almost 600 trees in streets and parks, and planted two small, wooded areas at Logan’s Meadow and at Five Trees Park, Chesterton.

Energy

• The council has worked with partners to reduce energy consumption in council homes and private homes across the city. In December 2021 the council was successful in its £6.46m consortium bid with other Cambridgeshire local authorities to the Government’s Sustainable Warmth Scheme. The project aims to support low-income residents in making energy efficiency improvements to their homes across Cambridgeshire from April 2022 to March 2023.

New homes

• The council is currently building 538 new homes for rent which meet high sustainability standards, using £70m Government funding via the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Devolution Deal. 166 homes have now been completed.
• The Council is also building new council homes to Passivhaus standards – a leading energy and performance standard which significantly reduces energy use from building. Construction has started on the councils Passivhaus pilot schemes at Fen Road, Ditton Fields, and Borrowdale.

Cllr Rosy Moore, Executive Councillor for Environment, Climate Change and Biodiversity, said: “In 2019, the council declared a climate emergency and since then we have become even more focused on increasing our efforts to do what we can to address the climate crisis.

“We have been delivering projects that will help to make the council and the city more sustainable, such as developing new energy efficient homes and working with residents to make energy efficiency improvements and helping to create an accessible electric vehicle charging network across the city. 

“These projects all highlight the real co-benefits in improving the health and wellbeing of residents that tackling the climate crisis can bring; such as making our homes cheaper to run, planting more tress in our streets and open spaces, and in cleaning up the air that we all breathe.

“The council is striving towards our goal of net zero carbon emissions by 2030 and we plan to create a cleaner, greener and more people-friendly city in the process.”