Four years ago a relative newcomer to the debating chamber at County Hall called on councillors to declare a climate emergency and put Carmarthenshire on a path to becoming a net zero carbon council by 2030. Cllr Aled Vaughan Owen's motion was passed - and now he is now in charge of making the net zero commitment a reality.
Net zero means cutting your carbon emissions as much as you can and offsetting those that you can't, for example by planting trees or building a solar farm.
The council is focusing on making its schools and offices more energy-efficient, replacing its cars, vans and lorries with greener alternatives, reducing employee business mileage, and replacing old street lights with more energy-efficient ones. Cllr Vaughan Owen, cabinet member for climate change, decarbonisation and sustainability since May, 2022, said the authority's carbon footprint in these four areas was nearly 32% smaller than it was in 2016-17 but that it had started to move "in the wrong direction" after Covid restrictions ended.
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