THE first steps on the road to lowering Powys County Council’s carbon emissions to net zero by 2030 have been taken.

At a meeting of Powys County Council’s Cabinet on Tuesday, March 1, councillors voted to approved the Climate Change Strategy. The strategy is built on the declaration of a Climate Emergency by the council at a meeting on September 24, 2020.

This document explains how the council will act in five areas, buildings, mobility and transport, procurement, land use and agriculture as well as council and governance to achieve their goals.

This follows a consultation held between December 15, 2021, and January 7, 2022.

The main aims of the strategy is to:.

To promote funding programmes and initiatives in support of renewable energy and other energy saving projects;

To maximise opportunities for carbon capture and minimise carbon release through the appropriate management of natural resources; and

To raise awareness and to create a climate conscious and resilient Powys.

Portfolio holder for climate change, Cllr Myfanwy Alexander said:

“There is no doubt that Climate Change is the most serious challenge that we face, as communities as a council and as human beings living in this planet..

“However, I would like to sound a note against what I would call climate change pessimism, because the climate has always changed, and the success of humanity has been to adapt to meet those challenges.”

Cllr Alexander explained that the Vikings had colonised and farmed in Greenland and that its name was to do with its pasture lands.

Later in the Middle Ages the climate grew colder, and the Vikings were unable to farm there.

Cllr Alexander said that 100 years after the Vikings left, the population of Greenland had doubled because the Inuit, Greenland’s indigenous people had been able to adapt and find new food sources.

Cllr Alexander added:

“This is a strategy for action and hope it embodies the practical ambitions of this cabinet, and I’m delighted to be able to report that the carbon footprint of the council has reduced by 13.5 per cent which means we are on target to be a zero-carbon county by 2030.”

Council leader Cllr Rosemarie Harris said:

“Agriculture can and does deliver in terms of climate change and should not be seen as some monster.

“What I would like to thinks is that we could deliver cheaper energy for the people of Powys and more EV (electric vehicle) charging points so that we could boost our tourism industry.”

Director of environment and economy, Nigel Brinn said:

“We had a good consultation the engagement was excellent, we have a lot of interlinked strategies, the work starts now,”