Lewes District Council sets measurable goals to keep climate pledges on track

Lewes’ climate change and sustainability strategy sets measurable goals to guide climate action up until 2030, with interim targets also defined for 2025 and earlier. The goals set out a clear challenge for the council and local area to work towards and provide a benchmark for performance reporting. The strategy was published in 2021, after the authority declared a climate emergency in 2019.

The targets are focused on the council’s central vision to get to net-zero carbon emissions as well as building local resilience to climate change and tackling the area’s ecological emergency. The council determined three key approaches needed to achieve this vision:

• reducing demand, (energy/travel/waste/consumption of meat and dairy)
• decarbonising energy
• tackling residual emissions. (e.g. community energy and woodland creation).

Initial research into these three areas revealed a need to cut carbon emissions by 458,000 tonnes CO₂e.

To deliver against these key areas, the council agreed upon a set of clearly defined targets after running panel sessions with local climate experts. The goals are far reaching and cover seven strategic areas including growing the green economy through local skills and procurement, energy and the built environment, sustainable travel, biodiversity and waste.

The goals and targets set by Lewes have the potential to influence a wider area due to the sharing of key staff between Lewes District and Eastbourne Borough Councils. Despite the back-office merger in 2015, they remain politically and economically independent, whilst also setting their own climate targets and individual climate action plans.

Strategic goals set for 2030 in Lewes

1. Energy and the Built Environment: build and encouraged affordable, energy efficient and climate resilient homes.
2. Sustainable Transport and Air Quality: improve air quality and reduced carbon emissions by reducing reliance on cars,and need for personal car ownership.
3. Biodiversity: ensure all developments maximise the opportunities for well-considered net gains in biodiversity. Increase biodiversity on council owned and managed landholdings.
4. Agriculture and Food: work in partnership with others to educate and enable residents to access affordable, local and seasonal food, through supporting opportunities for local production and distribution.
5. Reducing Emissions from Waste: reduce emissions from waste collection. Increase the proportion of the waste collected by the council that is recycled,and reduce the emissions from this activity where the council can influence and control them – creating a zero carbon waste fleet by 2030.
6. Water: work in partnership with others to achieve reduced water consumption in the district, conserving and protecting our water resources, including the local aquifer.
7. Circular Economy and Community Wealth: enact a sustainable procurement policy that facilitates local supply chains and encourages a circular economy.

To reach these goals, interim targets have been set for 2025 or earlier. They include:

• Energy and the Built Environment: Increase solar energy capacity by 12MW across the district, and achieve a 60% reduction in council carbon emissions, by 2025.
• Sustainable Transport and Air Quality: install EV charge points and cycle parking in all council car parks by 2025.
• Biodiversity: ensure all major developments achieve at least 20% biodiversity net gain no later than 2025.
• Agriculture and Food: Engage with all council tenants about food growing and create governance and draft strategy for a local food partnership, by 2022.
• Reducing Emissions from Waste: ensure that by 2025 55% of waste is recycled.
• Water: Support Southern Water in its aim to deliver up to 50,000 water efficiency audits by the end of 2021.
• Circular Economy and Community Wealth: ensure that community investment in local projects is possible no later than 2025.