The City of Durham Parish Council acknowledges the urgent need for global society to reduce carbon emissions and we acknowledge that “business as usual” is not an option in the face of the climate emergency and that society in its current form is unsustainable.
I. We will therefore:
• commit to becoming a carbon-neutral organization by 2030, to include scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions *.
• we will create a roadmap for achieving this by September 2021 and a carbon audit by December 2021 and include environmental implications in all officer reports from that date.
II. We will seek ways to facilitate and encourage our community in reducing direct and indirect CO2 emissions and to become resilient to changes caused by the changing climate. We will take active steps where possible to encourage:
• more sustainable transport;
• reductions in energy use in homes, businesses and elsewhere;
• co-operation with organisations seeking to develop low carbon community-led affordable housing;
• use and development of renewable energy resources;
• production and consumption of locally-sources food;
• any other methods to achieve the above aims.
III. As a council we will:
• strategically reassess and adjust the scope of our current activities;
• proactively reduce our CO2 emissions as an organization;
• seek to encourage and enable our community to decrease their emissions and improve their resilience to climate change;
• seek to influence the policies of other organisations to encourage them to reduce their emissions;
*Scope 1 and 2 cover direct emissions sources (e.g. fuel used in company vehicles and purchased electricity) scope 3 emissions cover all indirect emissions due to the activities of an organisation.