Devon County Council has won praise from the Carbon Trust for its work to reduce carbon emissions.

The County Council is participating in the Carbon Trust’s Local Authority Carbon Management programme and contributed to last year being the most successful year to date.

The energy efficiency projects across the national programme resulted in total identified annual savings of 250,000 tonnes of CO2 and over £25 million.

The Carbon Trust highlighted Devon County Council as an "excellent example of success", thanks to the foundation of its thoroughly developed strategy and Devon’s groundbreaking implementation plan.

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Richard Rugg, Head of Public Sector at the Carbon Trust, said: "Devon County Council has put in place a robust framework within which to further develop its carbon saving activity over the next five to 10 years. The work of its carbon management team set an excellent example both to the rest of the sector and across Devon’s local business and domestic community. The Carbon Trust would like to congratulate Devon County Council on this success."

Devon has agreed a minimum carbon reduction of 2.1 per cent per annum, but it is expected to reduce levels by 13.3 per cent, which is 5,620 tonnes of CO2 and a saving of £6.5m, by 2011-2012.

Devon County Council has agreed funding for key energy reduction initiatives including the installation of energy efficient street lighting and power reduction measures, the roll out of an audio conferencing to reduce business miles and voltage reduction at County Hall. There is also a campaign to support the County Council’s travel plan and funding for a biomass boiler at County Hall.

(JM/SP)