Plan 2030. Accelerating action for a net zero 2030: A report for South Gloucestershire Council

Longhurst, Jim

Abstract

Achieving net zero in 2050 is enshrined in UK law. The first three national carbon budgets have made an impressive start on the UK decarbonisation journey but the challenge of implementation facing the fourth, fifth and sixth budget is significant. The Net Zero Strategy is an impressive outline of good intention and proposed actions to build on progress but urgent action is needed to meet the UK commitment to achieve net zero by 2050. Equally, urgent action is required across South Gloucestershire, including the Council itself, to meet the Climate Emergency declaration by 2030.
South Gloucestershire Council’s Climate Emergency Declaration pledges to provide the leadership to enable South Gloucestershire to become carbon neutral by 2030. The Climate Emergency Strategy and Action Plans interpret this as leading, enabling and inspiring climate action across the area recognising that the Council does not have the powers and resources to require climate action of residents and enterprises.
Territorial emissions of CO2 in South Gloucestershire are estimated at just over 1,137 kt for the year 2019. Council direct emissions are approximately 1% of the total emission.
Adaptation measures and resilience in the face of a changing climate requires enhanced attention and the implications for South Gloucestershire of the UK’s Third Climate Change Risk Assessment are discussed in this report. Whilst the focus of this report is to review progress and steps required to achieve net zero, the South Gloucestershire Climate Emergency declaration also sets out commitments to restore nature and double tree canopy cover across the area, which plays a key role in plans for adaptation, resilience and other benefits across the Council’s priorities.
South Gloucestershire as an area will, on current estimates, have a residual CO2 emission of some 5-600kt in 2030. The vast majority of this residual comes from territorial emissions from industry, transport and the domestic sector.
In the absence of any further local action to reduce territorial emissions over and above national actions South Gloucestershire will need to determine how this residual is to be managed through compensation actions such as offsetting. Land will need to acquired and long term funding for the ongoing management of the offset secured.
Scope 3 emissions defined in the Greenhouse Gas Protocol (including those from construction, waste, water, commuting, travel, food and procurement) require further attention in the discussions and actions of the Council and of key employers across South Gloucestershire.
The rate and scale of decarbonisation activity can be enhanced by actions undertaken by the Council, especially through leadership. As the national target is net zero by 2050 and South Gloucestershire has set a 2030 target there is a disconnect between the delivery actions nationally and locally. In order to meet its ambitions South Gloucestershire Council will need to be more innovative and potentially disruptive in its actions and to support this recommendations are provided covering 20 areas of action to enhance the scale and accelerate the rate of decarbonisation within South Gloucestershire.

• Report Type: Consultancy Report
• Publication Date: Apr 27, 2022
• Deposit Date: Feb 28, 2023
• Publicly Available Date: Mar 1, 2023
• Pages: 87
• Keywords: South Gloucestershire, Climate Emergency, Net Zero
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/10488719
• Publisher URL: https://beta.southglos.gov.uk/static/23cb25bc79530eb7c8d24551d671801e/Plan-to-2030-Research-Report.pdf