Climate and nature emergency in South Gloucestershire

South Gloucestershire Council declared a climate emergency on 17 July 2019.

This means that the global climate is in a state of breakdown and this is an emergency.

We need to urgently prepare for the local impacts of climate change, reduce our carbon emissions and protect and restore nature.

You can read our original Climate Emergency Declaration.

As part of this work, we recognise the nature emergency which has several causes including climate change. Responding to the nature emergency is a crucial part of our response to the Climate Emergency.

We are responding to the Climate and Nature Emergency.

Page contents

Our pledge and progress

We have pledged to:

  • provide the leadership to enable South Gloucestershire to become carbon neutral by 2030
  • set out an area wide Climate Emergency Action Plan each year until 2030

We have signed up to:

In January 2022, our Climate Emergency Action Plan was scored alongside 328 local authority climate action plans. South Gloucestershire was ranked in the top 10 plans in the country.

You can read our:

The West of England Combined Authority (WECA) also declared a climate emergency on 19 July 2019, with a target of net zero emissions by 2030.

We will work with WECA and the other unitary authorities to reach this target.

Monitoring our greenhouse gas emissions and renewable energy

These dashboards help monitor our progress towards becoming a carbon neutral area.

You can also view our Net Zero Dashboard for 2022.

South Gloucestershire's 2022 Net Zero dashboard

Progress towards our key targets by December 2022

Progress towards our key climate emergency targets for 2022

You can also read the data in PDF format.

Plan to 2030

We have produced a Plan to 2030 research report which looks at the likely remaining carbon emissions in our area by 2030 when both the maximum possible national and local interventions have been applied. It makes recommendations about what we should focus on delivering for maximum impact between now and 2030.

This report was produced by the South Gloucestershire Climate Emergency University Advisory Group and has been used to inform the development of our Year 4 Climate Emergency Action Plan 2023/24.

Climate and nature

We have been working with our strategic partners and the wider community to tackle climate change for over a decade.

This includes reducing emissions and tackling the local impact of a changing climate, including increased heat, drought and risk of flooding.

We have worked on:

• street lighting
• schools
• transport infrastructure schemes
• flood prevention schemes

Nature emergency (or ecological emergency)

We know that climate change is having a significant impact on the health of nature and ecosystems. Some councils are also declaring an ecological (nature) emergency.

We feel that the nature emergency is a critical part of the wider environmental crisis.

For this reason, we have decided to take an approach that tackles the nature emergency together with the climate emergency. For 2022 we have brought together our reporting into one Climate and Nature Emergency Annual Review.

Working with others

We will work with residents, businesses, and partners to:

• reduce carbon emissions
• build resilience to the local impact of a changing climate
• restore nature

Our green infrastructure and nature recovery action plan

We have produced a strategy and action plan to protect and restore nature.

This plan includes action to improve our green infrastructure to provide healthier, greener and more resilient places where people and nature thrive.

Green infrastructure helps our communities adapt and be resilient to the changing climate by providing shade, cooling, water storage and natural drainage.

Climate and nature emergency community engagement group

We have started a climate and nature emergency community engagement group. This is run jointly with CVS South Gloucestershire (Community and Voluntary Services).

The group is open to everyone in South Gloucestershire and meets quarterly.

You can sign up to our climate change mailing list to get group information.

You can also email climate.emergency@southglos.gov.uk

Find out about our network of groups acting on the climate and nature emergency.

Local strategic partnership

We work with major organisations, including:

  • Business West
  • University of the West of England
  • Avon and Somerset Fire Service
  • Airbus
  • CVS South Gloucestershire
  • Avon Wildlife Trust
  • South Gloucestershire and Stroud College

You can find out more about this partnership and what they are doing by visiting our area our future.

Climate and nature emergency university advisory group

This group provides independent technical advice to the local strategic partnership and council on how to respond to the climate and nature emergency.

You can read a review of our performance so far.

The Local Greenhouse Gas Emissions Report (2021) monitors greenhouse gas emissions from our buildings, estate, and activities. It also includes the renewable energy that we generate directly.

You can find area wide information on renewables in our annual renewable energy report (2021) .

To get in touch with us email climate.emergency@southglos.gov.uk.

Beta This is our beta website, your feedback can help us improve it.