An agreement that will help Bath & North East Somerset Council, local public sector organisations, and local communities to access European Union funding to cut carbon emissions was signed today.
An event took place on Tuesday 24th of January at the Guildhall, Bath with Councillor Paul Crossley, Leader of the Council, plus the members of the Bath & North East Somerset Environmental Sustainability Partnership and Kierson Wise from the Severn Wye Energy Agency.
The area joined 3,369 other locations around Europe in signing the Covenant of Mayors initiative. Signatories pledge to support their communities in cutting area-wide carbon emissions by at least 20% by 2020. The Council has gone further by pledging to support a 45% reduction by 2026.
Councillor Paul Crossley (Lib-Dem, Southdown), Leader of Council, said, “Great strides have been taken towards Bath & North East Somerset Council and its public sector partners engaging with our local communities in order to reduce carbon emissions and protect the planet for future generations. But we must never lose sight of the fact that the effort to cut emissions is an international one“.
“By signing-up to the Covenant of Mayors we open up opportunities to apply for funding from the European Union and develop new networks to learn more about how cities in other countries are tackling the causes and effects of climate change.“
As part of the Covenant of Mayors initiative, the Council is developing an Environmental Sustainability Partnership Action Plan that will tie together and guide all activity on local carbon reduction. Free support for developing this plan has been received from Severn Wye Energy Agency (SWEA) under an Intelligent Energy Europe project called come2COM.
Kierson Wise, from SWEA said “We are pleased to be working with Bath & North East Somerset Council, who now joins an elite band of local authorities in the UK taking the lead on tackling climate change through the Covenant of Mayors programme“.
Initiatives to engage the community are already underway. These include Bath Homes Fit for the Future, Local Energy Champions, and the online Environmental Sustainability Network.
