Our action to tackle climate change

Following our climate emergency declaration in 2019, we have set ourselves two ambitious targets to tackle climate change: to be a carbon-neutral council in December 2025, and to work with communities and partners towards a net zero carbon borough by 2045.

Our Climate Change and Air Quality Strategy outlines how we are taking action and our progress below highlights some of the things we've done so far.

Our progress

We expect to know if we have met our target to be a carbon-neutral council in 2025 by summer 2026, once the final emissions figures for 2025 are available. Borough-wide emissions have come down by 25.1% since 2018, the baseline year emissions are measured against.

View our carbon footprint page for a snapshot of the council and borough's carbon emissions

We have already:

• switched to a new energy contact so we now power our offices with 100% renewable electricity
• installed electric vehicle charging points on our land and in our car parks, including creating Hampshire's first publicly owned charging hub in Basingstoke town centre
• swapped our waste and recycling vehicles from diesel to low-carbon biofuel, cutting emissions from our operations by over 1,000 tonnes a year
• brought electric cars into our fleet and swapped diesel for low-carbon biofuel in grass mowers, tipper trucks and street sweepers
• had solar panels installed on several council-owned buildings and teamed up with Hampshire County Council and other local authorities for Solar Together – a group-buying solar scheme for residents.
• launched climate change toolkits to support people, community organisations and businesses to take action
• encouraged carbon-cutting action by communities, including award a £17,000 grant to community energy societies to take forward projects generating zero-emission electricity
• helped residents and companies access over £1 million worth of grants to make homes and businesses more sustainable
• improved the energy efficiency of our offices, including installing a fresh-air cooling system at our Civic Offices that is both environmentally friendly and has helped us save £9,500 a year
• set up a group of Environment Champions to promote sustainable practices among staff
• introduced a campaign to prevent idling vehicles creating air pollution
• adopted a transport strategy with a focus on encouraging more sustainable transport including cycling and walking

We continue to work on:

• supporting our innovative Green Team to encourage even greater carbon-cutting action by communities and businesses
• making buildings we own more energy efficient, including looking to invest over half a million pounds to power more of our community centres with solar panels
• putting forward proposals for more sustainable homes as we update our Local Plan that guides development with strong low-carbon policies
• making it easier to walk and cycle and taking forward ambitious plans to increase the number of on-street electric vehicle chargers, working with the county council
• celebrating how communities are tackling climate change and helping nature recover and encouraging further action for a greener borough through our Sustainable Basingstoke initiative

Contact the team

We are continuously looking at greener ways of delivering council services as well as how we can enable and inspire greater climate-positive action by communities, businesses and local organisations.

If you have ideas you would like to share with us or have an enquiry about climate change and sustainability, send a message to the Climate Change Team