Climate Fife 2024 - Our Strategy and Action Plan
We can tackle our impact on the climate, and its impact on us, by working together. Much has changed since the Council declared a Climate Emergency in 2019. We have made some significant progress over the years, and have almost halved our carbon footprint since 2015. The Climate Fife: Sustainable Energy and Climate Action Plan 2020-2030 continues to set out our work with partners over the next 10 years. The launch of Climate Fife 2024 identifies how the council is approaching the scaling up phase of activity.
We are committed to action, and the Climate Fife 2024 Strategy and Action Plan sets out our plan for the next four years. We are looking to the future, working to scale-up, going further and faster, and to build on our achievements so far.
Our climate matters. Our Fife matters.
Energy
By working together, we can transform the energy system to make it clean, sustainable, efficient, and affordable. To reduce our carbon footprint, we’re:
- making buildings and homes more energy efficient
- encouraging people to produce and consume food locally, and
- switching to electrical vehicles.
Resilience
Adapting to climate change will reduce the unavoidable impact on communities and biodiversity. We’ll work with partners to protect our built and natural landscapes. We'll also help communities prepare for, and respond to, the effects of climate change. This will include finding solutions to increase resilience to flooding.
Communities
Together, we can empower communities to take climate action that supports local wealth and wellbeing. To do this, we’re expanding walking and cycling routes and supporting communities to reduce, reuse, repair and recycle. We’ll also help local climate action groups collaborate and flourish. Everyone has a role to play.
Work on the go right now includes:
This is replacing all Fife's street lights with energy efficient bulbs, reducing associated carbon emissions by over 40%. Light Fife Green was a Council funded initiative to replace low pressure sodium lamps with energy efficient lanterns. The project started in 2013 and has since replaced over 45,000 lanterns resulting in 14 million kWh of electricity saved and over 10 thousand tonnes of CO2. The year 2019/20 saw the last year of the project with 4500 lanterns replaced.
The whole project has reduced the street infrastructure contribution to Fife Councils footprint from 10% in 2009 to 4% in 2020.
Back To TopThis involves increasing the number of electric cars in the council's fleet.
Back To TopThis is reducing the amount of waste sent to landfill. Fife currently diverts 55.3% of waste from landfill with 44.5% of this being recycled.
Back To TopThis is a call to action to reduce the use of single use plastics such as straws, cups, cutlery and ties in Fife Council buildings and activities.
Back To TopClimate Action Fife is a new Fife-wide partnership project between Greener Kirkcaldy, Fife Council, Fife College and Fife Communities Climate Action Network. The partnership is working to tackle the climate emergency in Fife. It's funded by The National Lottery Community Fund’s Climate Action Fund, which enables people and communities to take the lead in tackling the climate emergency.
Back To TopFor Fife Council’s Flood Risk Management, our prime consideration is for sustainable flood risk management:
- Promoting Natural Flood Management approaches that seek to use more sustainable methods for flood impact mitigation.
- Use a managed adaptive approach to only develop actions to be the most cost effective and be adaptable for future conditions.
- Consider the effects of climate change as per the UKCP study of the day (currently UKCP18, UK Climate Projections 2018).
Similarly, the Shoreline Management Plan will take account of climate change uplifts and propose actions using sustainable methods across its three time horizons (short: 0-20yrs, medium: 20-50yrs, long: 50-100yrs).
There's cross-over between these plans where we have historic (coastal) communities that are particularly vulnerable to sea level rise. Currently, sea level rise is looking like 0.8 m by 2080 – so we do not have long to plan. Alongside that, we have more extreme and more frequent weather events like the storms in August 2020. That may mean some inland communities need more drastic approaches.
Back To TopEvery year we report our progress to the Scottish Government on Fife Council’s own carbon footprint and the measures we are putting in place to reduce it.
The draft report can be found here:
Public Bodies Climate Change Duties Draft Report 2020-21
Historic reports can be found here:
https://sustainablescotlandnetwork.org/reports/fife-council
Every 3 years we must report to the Scottish Government on Fife Council’s actions to meet the biodiversity duty. Fife Council’s Biodiversity Duty Report 2018 - 2020 is available here.
Back To Top- Climate Fife - Fife's strategy and action plan responding to the climate emergency
- Carbon Management Plan
- Resources Strategy
- Fife Local Biodiversity Action Plan
- Planning guidance
- Fife Shoreline Management Plan 2011
- Sustainable Drainage Systems (SuDS) - Design Criteria Guidance Note
- Fife Council Local Transport Strategy (2002 - 2026)
- Local Climate Impacts Profile (LCLIP)
- Physical Activity, Sport & Cycling in Fife
- Fife Council Climate Change Adaptation Framework 2010
It’s difficult to stop all carbon emitting activities. Achieving ‘net zero carbon’ (or being ‘carbon neutral’) aims to ‘balance’ emissions by cutting them where we can and introducing measures to prevent those emissions that we cannot avoid from entering the atmosphere. This is called ‘offsetting’ emissions.
