We are committed to delivering a cleaner, greener East Cambridgeshire.
Having declared a climate emergency in 2019 we have focused actions to address urgent environmental issues facing the district and the wider world.
Specifically we are looking to:
- adapt to climate change
- reduce our own emissions
- bring back nature
As well as taking direct action we also working hard to bring the council, residents, businesses and community groups together to create an even better East Cambridgeshire, which is cleaner, greener and healthier for all, forever.
Climate and Nature Strategy 2024 to 2028
Our poster-style Climate and Nature Strategy 2024 to 2028 sets out on a single page our long term priorities and our goals by 2028.
For young people, we also have a dedicated Youth Climate Action page with ideas and suggestions.
Our top 20 actions for 2024/25
To help us make meaningful progress towards our long-term vision, each June we establish a new set of Top 20 Actions for the coming 12 months.
In June 2024, the council agreed its latest set of top 20 actions, again published in a poster-style format for ease of reading, or set out below under three themes.
Theme one: Bring back nature
- action 1: A new ‘Hedges for Hedgehogs’ campaign with free native hedgerow plants given away to local communities
- action 2: Further hedgehog recovery support including grants, training for landowners and new planning policy
- action 3: Extending the successful Pride of Place grant application scheme to the end of October 2024, giving 100% grant support to even more communities for open space and nature-led projects in our district
- action 4: We will work with local residents to create an accessible one-acre (0.5 ha) woodland in Bottisham
- action 5: Further nature improvements in our parks and open spaces, including grass cutting and wildflowers
- action 6: Deliver Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) via the planning system, including creation of large scale ‘habitat banks’
- action 7: Publish long term nature recovery plans via the creation of a Cambridgeshire-wide Local Nature Recovery Strategy
- action 8: We will deliver a Trees and Woodlands strategy
- action 9: We will create a ‘butterfly mound’ in one of public parks, constructed and seeded to attract butterflies and pollinators, with the design chosen via a poll
- action 10: Make our Phase 3, Arbour Square, Ely development as nature friendly as possible, including measures for hedgehogs, swifts, native planting and water saving
Theme two: Reducing our carbon emissions
- action 11: Move substantially all our refuse collection vehicles to Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil (HVO) fuel, which has at least an 80% reduction in carbon emissions compared with regular diesel
- action 12: Install solar panels on the roof of The Hive swimming pool, aiming to save at least 5 tonnes of CO2e emissions and save over £10,000 in annual running costs
- action 13: We will consider options for including environmental considerations when revising the council’s Contract Procedure Rules
- action 14: Continue to deliver Carbon Literacy training for all staff at the council
- action 15: Continue to provide support and advice to residents who want to undertake energy efficiency improvements in their homes, including £1.5m of Home Upgrade Grant 2 (HUG2) funding for spend across East Cambridgeshire
Theme three: Adapting to a changing climate
- action 16: ‘Water, water everywhere (then) not a drop to drink’; we will commence a water resilience campaign to help all of us be prepared to the dual threat of ‘water, water everywhere in winter, but then not a drop to drink in summer’
- action 17: Reduce water use in our own office buildings, aiming for a 10% reduction by June 2025
- action 18: Deadly Top Twenty! A public campaign to spot the top 20 most unwanted, damaging and deadly invasive species in the district, and informing residents what they could do to help
- action 19: Let’s Adapt Together. We will arrange community events and boost our engagement work as we foster a coming together to tackle the issues of climate change, nature recovery and adapting to a changing climate. £5,000 set aside for local community engagement activities
- action 20: We will engage with businesses and investors to help them thrive on our journey to a greener, cleaner East Cambridgeshire
Completed actions in previous years
If you would like to review our previous Top 20 actions and other recent achievements, please see our completed actions page.
Previous Environment Plans
Copies of our previous Environment Plans, each of which contained a set of top 20 actions as well as reporting on the council's climate emissions, our targets to become a carbon net zero council and our long term vision to boost the natural environment, can be found below.
From 2024, we no longer produce a single 'Environment Plan' document and instead publish separately a four-year strategy, a Top 20 Actions poster and an annual monitoring report.
