Portsmouth City Council to launch first carbon budget

Portsmouth City Council has announced it will be producing its first ever carbon budget for 2022/23, alongside the existing financial budget.

The council already produces a financial budget for the following financial year, which has two elements. The capital budget is for major infrastructure projects and the revenue budget is for ongoing services.

Kimberly Barrett, Portsmouth’s cabinet member for Climate Change and the Green Recovery, has got agreement that the council will now also do a Carbon Budget each year. The carbon budget will look at how much carbon the council produces from things like its vehicles, buildings and other operations, and will include plans to reduce this over time.

Barrett said: “If Portsmouth City Council is to be carbon neutral by 2030 it’s important that we know how much carbon the city council produces, but also how we can reduce this. The Local Government Association have produced a system for producing a carbon budget, and we aim to follow their system. It will take time for us to understand the process fully and to gather all the information needed to produce our first ever carbon budget but it’s important to take action now.”

Gerald Vernon-Jackson, council leader has agreed the plan and said: “This is the reason that we created this cross-council role on the Cabinet. Kimberly Barrett’s work means we can really get to grips with getting the council towards being carbon neutral.”