Edinburgh City Council has set an “ambitious” goal of turning the Scottish capital into a zero-carbon city by 2030.
The announcement comes shortly after the devolved government in Holyrood unveiled draft legislation establishing a nationwide target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2045, as recommended by the Committee on Climate Change.
“Cities and towns all over the world are recognising the horrifying scale of the climate change challenge facing us all,” said council leader Adam McVey.
“We have to act and act fast – and that is why this council and indeed the Scottish government are not shying away from recognising the state of affairs as a climate emergency.
“We are quite clear the 2030 target should be the target adopted by everyone in the city – public, private sector and third sector. We can achieve a zero-carbon city by 2030 but we cannot afford for this to be delivered any later than 2037 so we have set this as an absolute limit on reaching this goal.”
He continued: “It’s a massive and definitely daunting piece of work so it needs a clear direction of travel if we’re to do this properly. I know we can achieve great things if we take an ambitious but realistic approach.”
Earlier this week, Scottish Power pledged to work with local authorities to turn Glasgow into the UK’s first zero-carbon city.