A host of environmental measures have been approved by Babergh District Council to help it achieve an ambition of becoming carbon neutral by 2030.

The proposals were developed by a cross-party Environment and Climate Change Task Force, which were welcomed in a joint statement from all political group leaders last month.

This decision will now form the councils' first Carbon Reduction Management Plan, setting out how they aim to fulfil their ambitions of becoming carbon neutral within the next 10 years.

These are the first steps in achieving the long term objective to reduce the councils' current emissions of approximately 5,452 metric tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) per year, looking into how best to invest in order to reduce this to net zero.

The plan follows the climate emergency motions passed by both councils in 2019 and the creation of the Joint Environment and Climate Change Task Force.

In forming the proposals, the task force took expert advice on which areas to target first for the greatest impact – working with Groundwork Suffolk to analyse current emissions and develop recommendations.

Headline actions include:

Exploring the use of the councils' owned or controlled commercial estates, for renewable energy generation schemes, solar ports and battery storage;

Working with the councils' leisure providers to move towards both green tariff energy, and the buildings becoming less energy intensive to operate;

Transitioning existing diesel-powered waste and fleet vehicles to a more sustainable fuel source such as waste vegetable oil, with a longer term ambition with partners to introduce electric or hydrogen fuelled vehicles;

Identifying further efficiencies and opportunities for waste collections in line with the Government's anticipated Environment Bill;

Introducing an electric vehicle charging plan, co-operatively with our wider partners, to explore opportunities for expanding EV charging infrastructure in the districts;

Actively encouraging a digital-first culture at the councils and exploring incentives to reduce staff mileage;

Increasing tree and hedgerow planting and coverage across the district;

Ensuring new and current council housing is as efficient and environmentally friendly as possible, whilst also working more proactively with private housing developers to build sustainable communities;

Working with partners to improve the infrastructure necessary to increase sustainable travel in our key towns and beyond;

Continue to work on Suffolk-wide initiatives with our partner authorities through the Suffolk Climate Change Partnership and Suffolk Waste Partnership as well as with other business and academic organisations

Elisabeth Malvisi, Babergh District Council's cabinet member for environment, said: "These actions form the plan of how we will tackle the environment and climate change challenge here in Babergh, they demonstrate our commitment to working together with partners towards making Suffolk the greenest county. Making sure our district remains a place we're proud to call home, but also a destination for tourists to visit is so important. Developing sustainable travel at the heart of our town centres, and reducing the councils' dependency on fossil fuels are top priorities for us.

"We're not starting from scratch – we already play a key role in several environmental partnerships and initiatives including Tree for Life, the Suffolk Climate Change and Suffolk Waste Partnerships, and offering paperless billing to all our residents, but these proposals will help us take our next steps in tackling climate change."