Hertfordshire County Council will emit less CO₂ in future after pressure from Lib Dem Councillors Paul Zukowskyj and Malcolm Cowan at the Performance, Resources and Transformation Cabinet Panel last week.

Paul and Malcolm had questioned HCC’s extremely low carbon reduction target a number of months ago, when the Conservatives proposed a CO₂ reduction target of just 2% per year. Having achieved a 25% reduction over four years, Paul and Malcolm questioned why the new target was so low.

At last Wednesday’s panel, officers informed the panel that in 2013/14 CO₂ had been reduced by 7%, so they were suggesting revising the five year target from 10% to 15%.

At Paul and Malcolm’s insistence, the panel agreed to add a new recommendation to Cabinet, that the target be kept under review and increased even further if progress continued.

Paul commented: “The new 15% target is really welcome, reducing CO₂ not only helps limit climate change, it also keeps HCC’s energy bills down, saving public money from going up in smoke.

“The original target was simply too low. HCC should be showing the way. With the new target of 15% it really helps show what can be done with a little effort. We’ll be pushing HCC to raise this to 20%. A target should be ambitious, and with LED street-lighting due to come on stream shortly, 20% would be ambitious but achievable.”