Glasgow: home of SMS Plc aims to become UK’s first carbon-neutral city

Glasgow aims to become the first city in Britain to be carbon-neutral in a new strategy to tackle climate change.

Glasgow City Council, working with ScottishPower, has pledged to make Britain’s third-biggest city the first to reach a “net zero” carbon emissions target and beat a 2045 overall target set out by the Scottish government.

The Scottish city, which is home to the headquarters of SMS Plc, plans to reach the goal by consuming greener energy and promoting a mass electric car charging scheme, as well as boosting investment in the renewable electricity grid.

For its part, ScottishPower said Britain’s approach to onshore wind power needed a fundamental rethink, adding that for Britain to meet a net-zero target it had to quadruple its renewable energy capacity and double its electricity generation.

Net-zero is the point where the same volume of greenhouse gases is being emitted as is being absorbed through other offsetting techniques like forestry.

The initiative aims to make Glasgow greener by decarbonising heating and transport and boosting investment in the electricity grid. Another focus will be to provide more charging locations for electric cars.

Glasgow has already been dubbed a “world-leading smart city” following a £24 million investment from the UK government into digital infrastructure and open data. This includes projects to reduce energy consumption in the city, such as intelligent street lights that adapt to people’s activity.

The Scottish government has said it would bring forward the date for reaching net zero emissions to “well before” 2045 – earlier than a previous 2050 target. Earlier this month however, the Committee on Climate Change (CCC) pressed the central UK government to take urgent policy action or face falling short of its legally-binding commitments to the Climate Change Act and Paris Agreement.