Isramart : North East councils ordered to cut the carbon

Isramart news:
CASH earmarked for bin collections and social services will be stripped from North East councils unless they make massive cuts to their carbon emissions.

City leaders are looking to make their offices and car fleets as green as possible before a new law comes in which will force them to buy up a licence for every tonne of CO² they produce.

When the carbon trading scheme is introduced next year, councils will have 12 months to do their best to bring down bills before the Government hands down steep charges to the most inefficient, and rewards the best performers.

The Department of Energy and Climate Change said a league table would be produce and wasteful councils named and shamed as well as seeing their bills go up.

On current levels of pollution North East councils would have to pay out more than £5m between them in the first year as a result of everything from inefficient heating systems to running heavy diesel vans.

If they do not get those bills down they will be included on a Government shame list which will see bills go up by 10%.

And spending bosses have been told paying those bills will have to come before allocating cash for all other services, effectively diverting funding from council departments until the cost of leaving the lights on is paid.

Henri Murison, Newcastle Labour group’s environment spokesman, said many authorities now realised they had to do more than “just promise to consider the environment”.

Newcastle Council’s most recently available figures show it could have to hand over more than £700,000 to cover the cost of pollution that comes as a result of running a major city authority.

Mr Murison said: “Newcastle has done a lot to reduce the energy used across the council, but our overall investment in green energy isn’t good enough.

“The lighting Private Finance Initiative that Labour introduced is 100% renewable energy, for example. However, the reality is that the way some councils look at the environment is as something they can push aside for later.

“Now it is going to have to be right at the middle of budget decisions. In future every building we build or car we buy will be looked at through its carbon emissions first.”

Sunderland Council, with the highest population in the region, faces trading permits estimated at costing some £700,000 and Northumberland Council said it could have to set aside £594,230. Both councils expect the final figure to be much lower as they begin a new wave of green changes.

In North Tyneside the bill is would cost £387,684. Again, the council said it will be able to reduce this through various improvements.

In South Tyneside the bill will see the Treasurer forced to find £400,000.

One council expecting to do well in the league table is Gateshead, which has pushed ahead with efforts to tackle their contribution to climate change.

Its carbon footprint is 32,438 tonnes of carbon. At £12 a tonne the financial impact on the council will be £389,356 in the first year.

Peter Thompson, head of environment and regeneration at Gateshead, said the council was prepared for the national rollout. He and council leader Mick Henry have come up with a variety of green changes, including 14 low emission vehicles for the fleet and plans to power the council using “the hydro-electric potential of the River Derwent”.

Other moves include introducing double glazing to all council homes and partially heating sites such as the new Blaydon Leisure and Primary Care Centre with biomass heaters.

Mr Thompson said: “In order to prepare for carbon trading we are in the process of fitting automatic metering for carbon emissions to our properties and we are working towards achieving Carbon Trust Standard.

“We believe these and other measures will make a major impact on our carbon footprint but we remain committed to investigating new and innovative ways of reducing our carbon pollution by 35% by the end of 2014.”