Climate change

South Gloucestershire Council recognises that climate change is one of the key issues of local and global concern this century and that urgent action is required to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases and to manage the impacts of climate change.

The South Gloucestershire Climate Change Strategy was first adopted by the council in 2006 and revised in 2008. The Strategy and a full progress report covering the period December 2008 to March 2011 can be viewed in the read more section.

Reducing carbon emissions and adapting to the effects of a changing climate remain a high priority for the Council and work is being undertaken to embed climate change issues within the revised Community Strategy and to develop revised action plans that set out how the Council will work with it’s Partners and the community to achieve an 80% reduction in carbon emissions* by 2050 (based on 1990 levels), with an interim target of 18% by 2020, based on 2008 levels (in line with the UK targets included in the Climate Change Act 2010).

Our Priorities for Action are:

1. Reduce carbon emissions across the Public estate and operations
2. Reduce carbon emissions from housing
3. Reduce carbon emissions from transport by developing a low carbon transport infrastructure and reducing the need to travel
4. Reduce carbon emissions in the commercial and industrial sector
5. Improve resilience to the impacts of climate change in South Gloucestershire

We will do this by

1. Embedding climate change considerations in all public decision making, strategy development and implementation
2. Managing growth sustainably and delivering low carbon new developments
3. Developing a comprehensive partnership programme to improve the energy efficiency of the existing housing stock and making the green deal a success in South Gloucestershire
4. Developing a low carbon transport infrastructure and reducing the need to travel
5. Developing and delivering partnership programmes to support the development of the low carbon economy
6. Enabling the development of appropriate renewable and low carbon energy schemes
7. Supporting the development of low carbon community and business networks and initiatives
8. Increasing preparedness for potential changes to the climate in South Gloucestershire
9. Working together on action planning, monitoring and progress reporting

The Council is committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions from its own estate and activities in order to play our part in limiting the extent of dangerous climate change. The Carbon Management Plan sets out the Council's programme of action to reduce emissions from Council buildings (including Schools), ICT, street lighting and transport, as well as increasing generation of energy from renewable sources.  Data is collected on greenhouse gas emissions resulting from the Council’s energy use, and this has been set out in the Council’s first annual Local Greenhouse Gas Report. The Carbon Management Plan and Local Greenhouse Gas Report can be viewed in the read more section of the Council’s Environmental Policy Webpage - www.southglos.gov.uk/environmentalpolicy.