Climate change

Climate change

Tewkesbury Borough Council declared a Climate Emergency at full council on 1 October 2019. More recently, in May 2023, the council extended this declaration to a Borough wide Climate and Ecological Emergency.

The council has committed to become carbon neutral by 2030 by addressing greenhouse gas emissions from our operations, specifically the council’s Public Service Centre building, but also addressing:

• Electricity, gas and water use in our buildings that are used to provide a public or community service
• The council’s vehicle fleet
• Travel by employees and councillors in vehicles or by public transport for council purposes
• Office waste.

Being carbon neutral means that after reducing greenhouse gas emissions, any remaining emissions released into the atmosphere from an organisation’s activities are balanced by an equivalent amount being removed.

In addition to the council’s own buildings becoming carbon neutral, the council has:

• Declared a borough-wide climate emergency
• Declared a nature (ecological) emergency, recognising that climate change and the resultant loss of biodiversity pose a threat to our wellbeing
• Committed to doing everything possible to make Tewkesbury Borough carbon neutral by 2030, taking into account both production-based and consumer-based emissions
• Declared support for the Climate and Ecology Bill.

The new council plan (2025–2028) features caring for our environment as a key priority whereby we will provide community leadership to support the borough to become carbon neutral as well as delivering policies and practices that protect and enhance our environment.

Our strategy

We have developed a Carbon Reduction Programme which sets out immediate actions alongside a long-term strategy for the Council to become carbon neutral.

We are working with residents, businesses, community groups and other organisations on climate issues across the borough.

Without increased and urgent mitigation ambition in the coming years, leading to a sharp decline in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, global warming will surpass 1.5°C in the following decades, leading to irreversible loss of the most fragile ecosystems, and crisis after crisis for the most vulnerable people and societies.
Source: IPCC, 2018: Global Warming of 1.5°C.