Climate strategy and delivery plans
Wiltshire Council Climate Strategy (PDF, 7 MB)(opens new window) was adopted by full council in February 2022, after a period of public and stakeholder consultation.
The Climate Strategy sets out the next five years of the council's journey to becoming a carbon neutral county, covering seven delivery themes: transport; built environment; waste; green economy; energy generation, storage and distribution; natural environment, food and farming; and carbon neutral council.
The Green and blue infrastructure, Wiltshire's Natural Environment Plan was also adopted, and both documents will now be used as frameworks for all forthcoming council policies and plans, to ensure the council is on track to meet its pledge to make Wiltshire Council carbon neutral by 2030, and its ambition to make the county of Wiltshire carbon neutral.
Climate Strategy delivery
The DRAFT Climate Delivery Plan 2025 (PDF, 811 KB)(opens new window) sets out how the council will be working to deliver the Climate Strategy.
The delivery plan has been informed by the following sources of evidence:
- studies by consultants Anthesis on the pathways to carbon neutral for council operations and for key areas of Wiltshire county emissions. See Anthesis Report Wiltshire Council (PDF, 4 MB)(opens new window) and Anthesis Report Wiltshire County, March 2022 (PDF, 7 MB)(opens new window).
- input from Wiltshire Council officers across many service areas, as to how the council might act on the pathways studies and Climate Strategy 'areas of focus'.
- consultation with Wiltshire Councillors, in particular Cabinet and the Climate Emergency Task Group. The task group developed two reports and recommendations covering energy, transport and air quality (see Agenda and minutes Environment Select Committee - Wednesday 13 January 2021 10.30 am (opens new window)) and planning (see Agenda and minutes Environment Select Committee - Wednesday 3 March 2021 10.30 am (opens new window)).
Wiltshire-Council-Climate-Adaptation-Delivery-PlanWEB (PDF, 6 MB)(opens new window) sets out how the council will be prepared for the impacts of climate change, such as more frequent and severe storms, flooding and heatwaves. This plan is based on Climate Change Risk Assessment with the council's key services. A report has also been submitted to DEFRA as part of their fourth Adaptation Reporting Power (ARP4) pilot for local authorities. The WiltshireCouncil-ClimateAdaptation-ARP4- SummaryWEB (PDF, 6 MB)(opens new window) demonstrates that the council has made climate risk management a leadership priority, which is integrated into governance, strategy and operations.
The council will continue to deliver carbon reduction work and climate resilience work, focussing on the actions set out in the delivery plans for the period 2025, which have been prioritised according to carbon savings, cost, feasibility and co-benefits, in line with the principles of the Climate Strategy (see page 8).
The council is incorporating Climate Strategy objectives into its annual service delivery planning, and will continue to provide information via our website, social media and community organisations to help increase awareness of climate change and provide practical steps to residents.
Information on what the council is already doing to combat carbon emissions and become resilient to climate change can be found in our yearly updates to Climate emergency - latest progress.