In May last year, the administration at Kent County Council committed to bring forward a strategy with a timeline for achieving net zero carbon emissions from our estate and operations. When I became Leader of the Council last autumn, I appointed a dedicated (in both senses of the term) Cabinet Member for Environment, Susan Carey, with a mandate to address this and other key environmental issues.
The plan was originally intended to be brought to our County Council meeting in the spring. Covid-19 brought a delay to that as to much else. Nonetheless, on Thursday County Council did receive and approve the plan to achieve net zero by 2030.
What is most striking about the plan is its detail and realism. KCC used detailed scenario planning developed by Laser Energy (an energy trading company, and hence source of considerable expertise, within Commercial Services Kent Ltd, which is in turn owned by KCC). This set out a variety of approaches - using investment in renewable energy, a shift to electric vehicles and reduction in emissions from the KCC estate - to achieving net zero, and projected a way forward that combined these different strands. The plan also sets out the sources for funding the £27 million in required investment to deliver net zero by 2030, albeit yielding returns of £96 million by 2050.
This is just one part of the County Council's approach to energy and climate change issues. On the day after the County Council meeting, the final draft of the Kent and Medway Energy and Low Emissions Strategy (ELES), which among other things sets out a path to net zero by 2050 for the county as a whole, was presented to a meeting of the Environment and Transport Cabinet Committee and hopefully should soon be adopted by KCC. Later in the year, we will also be bringing forward more proposals in the area of adaptation and resilience.
You can find the net zero paper for County Council here and the ELES papers to Cabinet Committee under item 9 in this agenda.
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