Aberdeenshire Council will have to do much better

Aberdeenshire Council is failing to meet its own targets on sustainability and cutting greenhouse gas emissions. This has been confirmed by the latest data collected by the Council to monitor its performance against the commitments in its Sustainability Charter. It is clear too that the Council will not achieve the reductions in carbon emissions required by legislation unless it dramatically improves.
      
The figures compiled by the Council show:
* Energy consumption in Council buildings has increased in each of the last three years (180,617,786 kWh in 2007/08; 180,646,224 kWh in 2008/09; 183,317,802 kWh in 2009/10).
* Increased fuel use by Council vehicles but a small decrease in business mileage claims from staff (councillors' total mileage claims, however, increased by 0.7 per cent in 2009/10 compared with 2008/09).
* Increased carbon dioxide emissions from Council buildings.
       
Bluntly, this is nowhere near good enough. Aberdeenshire Council is not living up to its own environmental promises. While it is clear considerable effort is being put into training and awareness-raising, the Council's actual performance is getting worse. Energy and fuel use have increased, carbon emissions have gone up.
      
There will certainly have been an effect on last year's figures from the hard winter. The data collected since 2007 though show that the poor performance is not confined to last year. At best, the Council is standing still. Generally, there is a trend in the wrong direction. There is absolutely no sign the Council is capable of delivering the year-on-year cuts in emissions that will be required under the Climate Change Act. Nor is there any sign that the Council's leadership has the faintest idea how to bring the Council's performance up to the required standard. Nor do most councillors show much interest in addressing the problem; last year, Aberdeenshire councillors voted not to take part in the 10:10 national campaign to cut carbon emissions.
                   
To meet the target of a 42 per cent cut in emissions by 2020, an annual 3 per cent cut in carbon emissions is necessary. I would be the first to say that it will be very difficult for Aberdeenshire to cut emissions by this amount. But it is going to have to - and councillors need to wake up to that and start doing something about it. Now.