The University has launched a new Climate Strategy – Zero by 2040. From the announcement:
The United Kingdom, along with more than 170 other countries, officially signed the Paris Agreement in 2016. The agreement sets out a global target to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and a decisive call to action to mitigate dangerous climate change caused by human activity.
To meet this challenge, and to support Scotland’s and the world’s transition to a low carbon economy, the University of Edinburgh will reduce its carbon emissions per £ million turnover by 50% from a 2007/08 baseline, and will become a net zero carbon university by 2040.
To meet these new obligations we will take action on research, learning and teaching, operations, responsible investment, and will investigate renewables opportunities.
It will use the University’s five campuses as living laboratories for learning and to test innovative ideas that can be replicated elsewhere.
On first impressions, this looks like a realistic programme. I’d like it to get to zero carbon sooner, but I do think it is better to set achievable targets rather than targets that are highly likely to be missed, as were ones in the past.