The ‘short window improvement plan’ outlines 37 immediate and short-term actions across all areas of council business such as planning, transport, housing, energy, education, tourism, culture, festivals, economic development, waste and recycling, parks, biodiversity and green infrastructure.
The road map highlights the actions the council is looking to take forward over the coming months while a sustainability strategy is developed with partners and published next year.
Members of the Policy & Sustainability Committee will consider the road map at a meeting this week.
Council leader Adam McVey said: “Achieving carbon neutral status by 2030 is no mean feat and it's going to involve a Herculean effort by public bodies and partners right across the city. The scale of the challenge is huge, but what our work to date has shown is that this is achievable. We’ve identified initial immediate, short-term actions we can progress now to reduce our carbon impact while we continue to develop far-reaching plans towards our 2030 target. By investing in the right choices as a council and encouraging other public bodies and private businesses to do the same, the next 11 years can deliver a climate secure future for the capital. I know Edinburgh’s got what it takes to make this happen.”
The council’s immediate action plan includes proposals to:
- accelerate the transition to electric vehicles within the Council’s fleet and expand and accelerate provision of electric vehicle charging infrastructure
- embed sustainable development and low-carbon energy across the Council’s new build housing programme
- carry out a targeted energy-efficient retrofit of the council’s operational buildings and commit to Passivhaus Standard as the default standard for all Council new-builds
- finalise a new tourism strategy for Edinburgh
- increase the use of green infrastructure within new and existing developments in order to increase permeability and cooling effects in the City
- implement an approach to evaluating and reporting on the sustainability impact of Council decisions in committee reports
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