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At the Cabinet meeting on Thursday 17 June, Warwickshire County Council agreed to sign-up to the UK100 Net Zero Pledge on carbon emission reduction.

UK100 is a network of local government leaders focused on tackling the climate emergency through the promotion of rapid action across a spectrum of climate change mitigation and adaptation work.

Joining the UK100 network has the following benefits:

  • It will enable the council to work directly with other councils facing the same climate challenges;
  • It will enable the council to become part of the Countryside Climate Network which strengthens the rural voice in encouraging national policy to tackle climate change; and
  • It will enable the council direct access to climate research, campaigns, publications, innovative funding models and private sector expertise.

By uniting with the other 110 authorities who have signed up to the net zero pledge, Warwickshire County Council will also join  the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Race to Zero initiative. This is the global campaign and movement aligned to the aims of UK100, to help build international as well as domestic momentum towards zero emissions ahead of COP26in Glasgow in November 2021.

Warwickshire County Council has implemented an ambitious plan of action to reduce emissions and achieve net zero targets since declaring a climate emergency in July 2019.

This includes, but is not limited to:

  • Tackling the council’s carbon emissions by decarbonising its buildings and vehicles;
  • Supporting Warwickshire communities to reduce their carbon emissions through initiatives such as the Green Shoots community grant scheme and the Solar Together collective buying scheme;
  • Installing additional charging points for electric vehicles
  • Supporting safe and active travel schemes for schools to promote cycling and walking; and
  • Continuing strategic countywide activity in areas like waste, flood prevention, transport policy and planning development.

Cllr Izzi Secombe, Leader of Warwickshire County Council, said: “There are few better demonstrations of our commitment to address the climate emergency than Warwickshire County Council signing the UK100 Net Zero Pledge. This is an important step in our plan to combat the impact of climate change. It will enable us to work collaboratively with other local authorities and organisations to meet the council target of Net Zero emissions by 2030 and sends a clear signal to our partners, residents and businesses on the pace and scale of our ambitions for Warwickshire. We will use this Pledge, along with the momentum from COP26 later this year, to demonstrate the power of what can be done when we work together.”

Cllr Heather Timms, Portfolio Holder for Heritage, Culture and the Environment, said: “Championing Warwickshire County Council’s sign-up to the UK100 Pledge is something that I was very happy to do. I am particularly interested in strengthening the voice of our rural communities and shaping national policy to tackle climate change.

“There is already a lot of fantastic work going on across Warwickshire to help achieve our target of being net zero by 2030 and minimise the effects that we all have on our fast-changing climate and our sign-up to the UK100 Pledge should help us to accelerate our activity while making best use of the most comprehensive climate research that is available.”

For more information about UK100, visit their website: https://www.uk100.org/

For more information about how Warwickshire County Council is facing the challenges of the climate change emergency, visit: https://www.warwickshire.gov.uk/strategies-policies-legislation/facing-challenge-climate-change-warwickshire

Get the latest news about how Warwickshire County Council and partners are facing the challenge of the climate emergency and how you can get involved: http://eepurl.com/hrk-zf

Published: 18th June 2021

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