Climate Action Plan a major step to reducing council emissions

South Oxfordshire District Council could take a major step to becoming a carbon neutral organisation next week when Cabinet members are asked to approve the council’s Climate Action Plan.

The Plan outlines how the council will achieve carbon neutrality by 2025 – this means the carbon produced from the council’s buildings and services will be balanced by the amount removed from the atmosphere.

If adopted, the Plan would signal some important changes for how the council delivers its services, where it makes investments, the policies it adopts and projects it supports. 

Staff and councillors would receive training to ensure they are aware of the impacts of carbon emissions and the council would adopt a digital by default approach for council meetings to help cut down on vehicle emissions. The Plan also outlines how the council will support local efforts to tackle the climate emergency. 

Cabinet members will consider the council’s Climate Action Plan on Thursday 3 February.  The Plan follows significant work from officers and councillors, and feedback from parish councils, local climate action groups and from the council’s Climate and Ecological Emergencies Advisory Committee which met earlier this month. 

To ensure the council is open about its progress towards the targets, officers will carry out quarterly reviews of the action plan and report to the Climate Emergency Advisory Committee and Cabinet.

Cllr Sue Cooper, Cabinet Member for Environment, Climate Change and Nature Recovery, said: “There are lots of things we can do as a council to reduce our emissions and we could make a real difference by making some relatively small and achievable changes to how we work.  Continuing advances in technology also present us with some great opportunities to reduce emissions from our buildings and vehicles.”

“We’ve already embraced climate considerations in our Corporate Plan commitments and throughout our services, however it’s now very important that we have a formal action plan in place which details the worthwhile actions we will take to meet our carbon neutral targets.”

“The plan also highlights how we will support our residents and communities.  By making sure information and advice is more widely available we can help to empower people to make changes at home so that they can use less heating and save money on fuel, and make journeys on foot or by bike, rather than by car.” 

ENDS

For more information, and to view the draft Climate Action Plan, see the Cabinet Meeting Page.

To find out more about climate action in South Oxfordshire visit southoxon.gov.uk/climateaction