The Council has published its annual report on the progress being made across our area to take action on the climate and nature emergencies.
Marking five years since a Climate and Nature Emergency was declared in South Gloucestershire, the report covers a range of activities, from the local and street-level, to the community and strategic.
Tackling the crisis facing the climate and natural world requires actions and contributions from everyone, from international bodies and governments, to regional and local authorities, communities and individuals. The action plans set out how South Gloucestershire Council is working in partnership to play its role and encourage others to take action in the areas and aspects of life that they can control.
Some of the practical steps the Council has taken in the past year include:
• Supporting 25 Town and Parish Councils to develop and start delivering Local Climate and Nature Emergency Action Plans
• Continuing to plant trees delivering the Tree Canopy Project, planting trees on council owned land
• Taking positive action to prepare our area for local climate changes by putting in place a framework for adaptation and resilience
• Promoted Round 3 of the regional Solar Together scheme, which helps residents access solar technology for their homes, and the regional Retrofit West campaign, which provides support for residents to want to retrofit more energy efficient sources of heating and power to their homes
• Securing funding for the Linking the Levels partnership project, which will help to restore nature across the Lower Severn Vale, Levels and Shore of South Gloucestershire
• Working with partners on the Resilient Frome natural flood management programme, to restore nature and improve resilience
• Working with 13 Town and Parish Councils and other local groups, 10,000 bulbs were planted in the autumn across our communities to provide early flowering and nectar rich sources of food for pollinators
• The former pitch and putt site in Cadbury Heath has been transformed into Jubilee Park, an ambitious new Biodiversity Park which has won a DEFRA Bees Needs award. Thanks to funding from the Council, the West of England Mayoral Combined Authority and Forest of Avon Trust, the community are now benefiting from a more attractive and accessible greenspace which provides a real haven for wildlife.
South Gloucestershire Council Cabinet Member for Climate and Nature Emergency, councillor Louise Harris, said: “As we reach the five-year mark since we made our Climate Emergency Declaration, this is an important moment to recognise our progress so far, be clear about how much we still need to do and how critical it is that we continue to scale up our progress and action.
“The Climate and Nature Emergency is having increasing impacts on all areas of our lives. Both locally and across the globe, we are seeing more dramatic shifts in the weather, which is causing damage, disruption and deaths, for humans as well as in the natural world.
“We are committed to playing our part, and working with and supporting others to play theirs, so that our communities can minimise the impact of these changes, and to be more resilient.
“One more practical step we are taking now is to install solar panels on council buildings. We are taking concrete steps to decarbonise the energy we use; to reduce the cost of power to run our schools and services; and to protect our local and the global environment by significantly cutting the carbon released into the atmosphere.”
The council acknowledges the scale of the challenges that still lie ahead, and that many of these are outside its control.
Councillor Harris added: “Our big challenges are restoring nature on a significant enough scale; a healthy natural world is fundamental to our economy and health and well-being.
“Building our resilience to the local impacts of a changing climate is essential but there aren’t currently sufficient financial resources to take many of the necessary steps to prevent the worst impacts.
“Transport remains a stubborn source of emissions, and we need national policies and finance to support local changes.
“Some national policies particularly around energy are shifting but we still need the government to take bolder steps and to bring finance to enable this work.
“We are supporting calls for national policy change recently signing up in support of the National Climate and Nature Bill.”
We need all our residents and businesses to work together with us to take the steps you can at home, at work and within your community to protect and restore nature, prepare for the local impacts of a changing climate and reduce your emissions.
