Zero Carbon Futures Symposium: 21 May 2019

This event was a participative expert symposium organised by Carbon Neutral Cambridge, in partnership with the Greater Cambridge Shared Planning Service of South Cambridgeshire District Council and Cambridge City Council, supported by Cambridge University’s Centre for the Study of Existential Risk and local businesses.

Participants included council officers, councillors, academia and a few expert attendees from relevant local businesses and community groups.  To allow participants to share experiences freely, the event was by invitation only and the symposium discussions were held under Chatham House Rules.

The event was described by participants as “inspiring” and “well organised” with “amazing speakers“.

The full event report summarising the key recommendations arising from the symposium can be downloaded here: Zero Carbon Futures

Objectives:
  • To help inform policy development for the new joint Greater Cambridge Local Plan.
  • To help councils become confident and well informed in using their leadership, local planning powers and partnerships to accelerate the transition to Net Zero Carbon.
Key questions:
  • What should a Zero Carbon target mean in practice to Councils?
  • What powers (both soft power and statutory) are available to Councils to help achieve this?
  • What examples are available to support the use of these powers?
Programme:
Other resources recommended by our speakers
Report

The full event report summarising the key recommendations arising from the symposium can be downloaded here: Zero Carbon Futures

We also shared the brief summary of findings and recommendations at a public meeting at our AGM in Cambridge on 2 July 2019. The presentation is here