A proposal for funding to tackle climate change and support digital connectivity in Cambridgeshire has been supported by a committee at the county council.

The Environment & Green Investment Committee at Cambridgeshire County Council (CCC) oversees spending on climate change work as well as large energy projects, minerals and waste matters.

It also plays a key role looking after the county’s historic and natural environment.

Over the next five years, the council proposes to prioritise £15.9m of funding to work towards reducing the county's carbon footprint. CCC's strategic ambition is to achieve a Net Zero Cambridgeshire by 2045.

The money will be used to continue the council’s work to manage and lead the climate change and environment agenda with additional investment to support nature recovery and biodiversity, develop new projects to further reduce carbon emissions, and support communities with energy systems transformation.

It will also fund work to better understand the costs and risk of climate change for council services, and across Cambridgeshire’s communities.

As well as the above, more than £5.4m is budgeted to continue the roll-out of fibre and super fast broadband across the county over the next year. T

Green energy projects currently under way include the connection of a new solar farm at Soham and the construction of smart energy grids at St Ives and Babraham Road Park & Ride sites.

Members of the Strategy, Resource & Performance Committee (S,R&P) agreed in December that the council's service committees would be invited to consider the proposals at their January meetings. In addition, the council launched an online public survey (https://www.cambridgeshire.gov.uk/budget-consultation-2024-5) and is seeking the views of town and parish councils, public sector authorities, business leaders, and most importantly, local residents.

Cambridgeshire County Council’s proposals for its 2024/5 budget have been prepared against a backdrop of what is being called ‘the toughest year to set a balanced council budget’, as the council looks to support vulnerable people and improve highways maintenance whilst seeking to bridge a remaining £2m funding gap.

Councillor Lorna Dupre, chair of Environment & Green Investment Committee said: “We know that people in Cambridgeshire place a high value on the environment and are concerned about climate change – they’ve made their high expectations of us clear in our recent Quality of Life survey.

“Despite the current financial circumstances, we continue to prioritise becoming a Net Zero organisation by 2030 and a Net Zero county by 2045. 69 per cent of those who let us know their thoughts through the Quality of Life survey indicated they were open to making changes to their behaviour to become more sustainable which demonstrates the local interest in our shared environment – and reinforces our community-led approach to reducing carbon emissions.”