Climate Change - what are we doing?

Climate Change and Air Quality Strategy

The council's Climate Change and Air Quality Strategy outlines how we are taking action to tackle climate change and air quality locally to meet the ambitious targets in our climate emergency declaration to:

• become a carbon neutral council in our operations by 2025; and,
• work towards a net zero carbon borough by 2030.

This includes setting out six key areas for action:

• Action by all - how to help everyone in the borough to contribute
• Buildings - tackling emissions from heating and powering our buildings
• Transport - tackling emissions from vehicles
• Zero carbon electricity - supporting the transition to a decarbonised electricity system
• Waste and consumption - reducing waste and consumption
• The natural environment - maximising the climate mitigation and adaptation qualities of the natural environment

An action plan sits alongside this strategy, setting out what the council is doing or plans to do in each area.

Climate Change and Air Quality Strategy

Basingstoke and Deane Climate Emergency Action Plan 2022 to 2023

Our progress to date

The drive to become a carbon neutral borough by 2030 has started and we are taking action to cut our own emissions as we work with partners to help the borough reach its net zero carbon target.

The carbon footprint document below provides a snapshot of Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council’s carbon emissions as well as those for the wider borough:

Updated carbon footprint figures for 2021 to 2022

In December 2019, we held a climate change summit to bring together ideas with partners. View a copy of the climate change summit presentation and the climate change summit outcomes report.

We have already:

• installed solar panels on the roofs of several of our council buildings
• introduced electric vehicle charging points along with a number of electric vehicles into our own council fleet
• improved the energy performance of the council’s Deanes and Parklands buildings
• switched to a renewable energy supply contract
• set up a group of Environment Champions to promote sustainable practices among staff
• installed a fresh air cooling system at the Civic Offices, as well as being environmentally-friendly, the initiative will generate a saving of £9,500 per year
• introduced fines for idling vehicles
• reduced the distances our bin trucks travel by rebalancing the rounds, with a monthly carbon saving of 3.8% per month.

Working with partners, we have:

• adopted a transport strategy with a focus on encouraging more sustainable transport including cycling and walking
• introduced a campaign to prevent idling cars creating air pollution
• given out loans and grants to improve insulation and install renewable energy sources
• supported residents to apply for government funding for energy efficient boilers
• supported the production of toolkits on how to set up a local climate action group and a community energy project, with Sustainable Overton
• teamed up with Hampshire County Council and other local authorities in Hampshire for Solar Together – a group-buying solar scheme for residents.

Next steps

We are working on our next steps looking at greener ways of delivering council services. Here are just a few of the projects we are working on:

• With advice from the Energy Savings Trust we are exploring greater use of electric vehicles.
• Updating our Local Plan to ensure tougher standards associated with climate change and emissions.
• Reviewing the energy efficiency of our accommodation and our staff and councillors’ travel.
• Increasing opportunities for smarter working.
• Working as part of a partnership with master developer Urban&Civic and Hampshire County Council on a project to create up to 3,520 new homes at Manydown using Garden Towns’ principles
• Exploring opportunities for businesses to develop low carbon solutions.

Contact the team