Rebuilding a Greener Hackney: £26m to tackle climate emergency over next three years
A minimum of £26m is being committed to tackling the climate emergency over the next three years, as an update on the Council’s climate response was presented to Full Council yesterday.
The funding continues the £25m three-year pledge made by the Council last year, with over £12m spent in the last year alone on schemes to rebuild a greener Hackney and reduce the borough’s impact on the planet. These include:
- Dedicating £2m to make the homes of residents on low incomes more energy efficient and reduce their energy bills, through the Council’s Green Homes programme
- Completing the first solar pilot projects at West Reservoir Water Sports Centre and London Field Lido
- Introduced fortnightly collections of residual waste to street level properties in March 2021. After a couple of months of implementation the overall borough recycling rate has already risen to 31%, helping to reduce emissions by recycling more
- Upgrading 69% of street lighting to LED so far, completing the remaining 31% by 2023
- During 2020/21, 13% of the Council's road registered fleet (66 vehicles) were fully electric. Based on total fuel consumed, of the remaining 87% of the fleet, 32% no longer run on fossil fuels - these now run on a renewable biofuel which is approx 92% CO2 efficient and up to 69% NOx efficient depending on the drive cycle
- Seven further sustainable drainage schemes have been implemented in 2020/21 with almost 1400m2 of highway depaved. These help to mitigate against the risk of flooding
- Overall totals of 2,500 new street trees have been planted with 11,760 trees planted in parks and green spaces since 2019
- Approved a new Air Quality Action Plan, adopting World Health Organisation limits for particulate matter pollution
- 48 School Streets implemented (50 schools), helping over 18,000 children on their journey to school
- 15 new Low Traffic Neighbourhoods were introduced, creating a wider network of low traffic roads that serve as cycle quietways. About 17% of Hackney’s residents now live in new low traffic neighbourhoods. Consultation has been open on these schemes since they were introduced via Experimental Traffic Orders - attracting over 19,000 responses so far.
The work is part of the Council’s declaration of a climate emergency in 2019, where it committed to net zero emissions across all its functions by 2040 and a 45% reduction on 2010 levels by 2030.
For a full outline of the work completed in the last year, view the report presented to Full Council.
To support the Council's existing work programme, it has developed a new Net Zero Energy Strategy, outlining how it will reduce its carbon emissions, and is set to publish a Green Infrastructure Strategy and Local Nature Recovery Plan in the coming months.
It will engage with local people on its work to rebuild a Greener Hackney through an engagement event in September and a Climate Summit in November, as well as through consultation on its Green Infrastructure Strategy in the Autumn.
The work we’ve done over the past year demonstrates our commitment to action on the climate crisis - and shows that we can rebuild a greener borough - with cleaner air, healthier lives and better neighbourhoods - in the process.
Over the coming months, we’ll be sharing more plans and talking to residents about how we work together to tackle the climate emergency.
