We’re delivering our Climate Fife Action Plan through all of our work. It’s a flexible document that sets out how we will work with our partners and communities over the next 10 years to become:
We declared a climate emergency for Fife on 26th September 2019. A Climate Emergency is a public commitment to de-carbonise as rapidly as possible. Fife Council has committed to set a target for a net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2045 at the latest. This will require a huge transformation in Fife’s communities.
This is replacing all Fife's street lights with energy efficient bulbs, reducing associated carbon emissions by over 40%. Light Fife Green was a Council funded initiative to replace low pressure sodium lamps with energy efficient lanterns. The project started in 2013 and has since replaced over 45,000 lanterns resulting in 14 million kWh of electricity saved and over 10 thousand tonnes of CO2. The year 2019/20 saw the last year of the project with 4500 lanterns replaced.
The whole project has reduced the street infrastructure contribution to Fife Councils footprint from 10% in 2009 to 4% in 2020.
Back To TopThis involves increasing the number of electric cars in the council's fleet.
Back To TopThis is reducing the amount of waste sent to landfill. Fife currently diverts 55.3% of waste from landfill with 44.5% of this being recycled.
Back To TopThis is a call to action to reduce the use of single use plastics such as straws, cups, cutlery and ties in Fife Council buildings and activities.
Back To TopClimate Action Fife is a new Fife-wide partnership project between Greener Kirkcaldy, Fife Council, Fife College and Fife Communities Climate Action Network. The partnership is working to tackle the climate emergency in Fife. It's funded by The National Lottery Community Fund’s Climate Action Fund, which enables people and communities to take the lead in tackling the climate emergency.
Back To TopFor Fife Council’s Flood Risk Management, our prime consideration is for sustainable flood risk management:
Similarly, the Shoreline Management Plan will take account of climate change uplifts and propose actions using sustainable methods across its three time horizons (short: 0-20yrs, medium: 20-50yrs, long: 50-100yrs).
There's cross-over between these plans where we have historic (coastal) communities that are particularly vulnerable to sea level rise. Currently, sea level rise is looking like 0.8 m by 2080 – so we do not have long to plan. Alongside that, we have more extreme and more frequent weather events like the storms in August 2020. That may mean some inland communities need more drastic approaches.
Back To TopEvery year we report our progress to the Scottish Government on Fife Council’s own carbon footprint and the measures we are putting in place to reduce it.
The draft report can be found here:
Public Bodies Climate Change Duties Draft Report 2020-21
Historic reports can be found here:
https://sustainablescotlandnetwork.org/reports/fife-council
Every 3 years we must report to the Scottish Government on Fife Council’s actions to meet the biodiversity duty. Fife Council’s Biodiversity Duty Report 2018 - 2020 is available here.
Back To TopIt’s difficult to stop all carbon emitting activities. Achieving ‘net zero carbon’ (or being ‘carbon neutral’) aims to ‘balance’ emissions by cutting them where we can and introducing measures to prevent those emissions that we cannot avoid from entering the atmosphere. This is called ‘offsetting’ emissions.
