SWANSEA Council now has more than 150 electric and hybrid vehicles but is unlikely to replace all its fleet by 2030 as planned.
Three electric refuse lorries have been rolled out and are performing well although their range was impacted by very hot weather in recent weeks, a council scrutiny group heard.
The council has a policy commitment to replace its fleet with electric models by 2030 as part of a wider ambition to reduce its net carbon emissions to zero in that year.
It’s a tough ask as the council has lots of buildings like schools and the Guildhall which are expensive to retrofit with things like heat pumps which are more environmentally-friendly than gas or oil-powered systems. Then there are the hundreds of petrol and diesel vehicles in its fleet to consider, among other things.
Council chiefs have consistently lobbied for more central Government funding to achieve the 2030 transition.
Members of the climate change and nature scrutiny panel heard more about the progress to date including from fleet manager Mark Barrow, who said most of the council’s vehicles could transition to battery-powered ones.
But he said finances and resources were challenging, along with the fact the council replaced its vehicles on a seven-year basis. “I don’t think any fleet in Wales will meet the 2030 target,” he said.
A report before the panel said the council had 1,003 vehicles – 82 fewer than a year previously – of which 134 were battery-powered. A further 21 were hybrids – a mix of battery and combustion engine.
Mr Barrow said replacing HGV vehicles with electric versions delivered big results in terms of emissions reductions.
While councillors also heard there has been progress in decarbonising buildings and with efforts to foster behaviour change they were advised the net zero transition has plateaued after early gains.
Cllr Andrea Harrington, cabinet member for service transformation, said the council had picked off “the low hanging fruit” early on and that delivering larger emission-reducing schemes was trickier because of costs. A council report last December estimated that retrofitting the council’s buildings to cut their operating emissions would cost around £178 million.
Cllr Harrington stressed the council still supported the 2030 net zero ambition and was, among other things, working with a private company on a solar farm scheme at the former Tir John landfill site in Port Tennant. Plans for the solar farm were approved in June 2023 but nothing has been built yet.
Overall the council reduced its carbon emissions by 23.5% between 2019-20 and 2024-25 with results from 2025-26 to be published in due course. For the last three years all the council’s electricity has been from renewable sources within Wales.
The UK has a binding target to become net zero by 2050. To do this it needs to decarbonise as much energy, transport, industry and agriculture as possible and find ways of removing emissions that remain. Greenhouse gas emissions are heating the planet by trapping heat in the atmosphere which would otherwise escape, and most of the excess heat is being taken up by oceans.
