BORDERS Council officials hope to join a new environment consultation.

On September 11th, Scottish Government revealed it wants the public sector to spearhead efforts to combat carbon emissions in Scotland.

We asked the Scottish Border Council what its plans for meeting government standards were and how they planned to go about achieving them.

A spokesperson for the council told us: "It is proposed that a first action for the Sustainable Development Group would be to review the recent decisions and actions of the UK and Scottish Governments and UK local authorities with a view to making recommendations as to how the council can play ‘our part’ in tackling climate change.

"We will review the Scottish Government’s commitment to achieve net-zero emissions of all greenhouse gases by 2045 at the latest, consider how to respond to this objective, and, specifically, any Scottish Borders targets and actions to which the Council should commit to.

"We have already carried out a number of positive projects including: installation of electric vehicle charge points and development of our electric vehicle fleet, delivering local home energy efficiency programmes supporting home insulation and launch of the Affordable Warmth and Energy Efficiency Strategy and local habitat enhancement projects."

In 2018 multiple city councils announced climate emergencies and were followed by UK governments soon after.

Roseanna Cunningham, Climate Change Secretary for Scottish Government said: “Several public bodies, including the City of Edinburgh Council, have already made firm commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. I want to bring the leaders of those bodies together, to form a coalition of the ambitious and play a leading role in Scotland’s response to the global climate emergency.

“I look forward to hearing views on how we can work together to continue to strengthen our approach to tackling climate change, improving the lives of the people who live here.”

The Role of Public Sector in Tackling Climate Change consultation is open to public bodies and the public to contribute and can be found at https://consult.gov.scot/energy-and-climate-change-directorate/role-of-public-sector-in-decarbonising/