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Birmingham’s ambitious targets for tackling the city’s carbon dioxide emissions were launched at the Climate Change Festival on 5 June…

Dame Ellen MacArthur joined Cllr Paul Tilsley (the Chair of Be Birmingham and deputy leader of Birmingham City Council) and Rod Ackril (the President of Birmingham Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Chair, of Chase Midlands) for the launch. Dame Ellen challenged everyone in Birmingham to cut their CO2 emissions by 100kg this year. (see www.youtube.com/bebirmingham)

The launch was followed by the Birmingham Hothouse Debate at the ICC, which brought together Birmingham’s professionals, designers and civic leaders to debate how we create a sustainable city. The Hothouse also saw the publication of Cutting CO2 for a Smarter Birmingham: Strategic Framework which is a strategy to achieve the targets. This has been published by Be Birmingham (the Local Strategic Partnership for Birmingham) and Birmingham City Council.

Birmingham’s Local Area Agreement, which is an agreement between Birmingham and government on how services will be delivered locally, includes an indicator on per capita CO2 emissions for the first time. This will help to launch more action on climate change. An action plan is being developed to meet this target. The Local Area Agreement also includes an indicator on fuel poverty.

(Thanks to Phil Beardmore at the Birmingham Sustainable Energy Partnership for this information.)