… Net Zero Emissions Action Plan Introduction This is the first iteration of the Net Zero Emissions Action Plan which was peer reviewed by the Association for Public Service Excellence (APSE) Energy to inform refinements and future work. It builds on previous Council-led work to address climate change including the Chapel Farm Solar…
… of capital grant funding from the Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme to install a 1.2MW battery at Waterside Park to store energy from Barnfield Solar Farm and supply the household waste recycling centre. What do we mean by ‘net zero’ greenhouse gas emissions? Net zero means achieving a position where total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are equal to or less than the emissions the UK removed…
… from the environment. This can be achieved by a combination of emission reduction and emission removal. When the amount of GHG emissions produced by a country, organisation or place are cancelled out by the amount removed, it will be a net zero emitter. GHG emissions can be removed by the natural environment (e.g. stored in soils, trees and the ocean) or by using technologies like carbon capture…
…, usage and storage. The lower the emissions, the easier this becomes. The target of achieving net zero emissions has been set at a global, country1 and also increasingly at a local area and organisational level. In discussions on climate change, the focus is often on carbon dioxide (CO2) – the most dominant anthropogenic greenhouse gas2 in terms of the quantity released and total impact…
… in general (although not all GHGs contain carbon). For clarity, this Action Plan refers to “GHG emissions”, covering all greenhouse gases. Further on in this document, the baseline starting point to get to net zero is set out in “carbon dioxide equivalent” or “CO2e” - a term for describing different greenhouse gases in a common unit. For any quantity and type of greenhouse gas, CO2e signifies…