£4m boost to Bristol’s action on the climate

To mark the anniversary of becoming the first in the UK to declare a climate emergency, a multi-million pound programme to reduce the carbon and ecological footprint in Bristol has been approved.

The £4 million financial package will fund a new three-year combined Climate and Ecological Emergency Programme. The programme complements the council’s action on travel, housing, energy, nature and a host of other initiatives around the city that bring together many different groups and organisations.

It is designed to be an ambitious yet achievable response to the climate and ecological emergencies, which will help Bristol City Council deliver its aim to be carbon neutral for direct emissions by 2025, through its estates, capital projects and in training its staff. It will also help the council lead and support other organisations in the citywide effort to become a carbon neutral and resilient city by 2030.

Bristol City Council has continued to make substantial reductions to its carbon footprint since the climate declaration, reducing it by a further nine per cent in one year from 2018/19 to 2019/20. This takes the total reductions in the council’s direct emissions since 2005 to 86 per cent.

Mayor Marvin Rees said: “The funding of these projects is another important milestone in the huge ongoing effort of everyone in the city to do what we can to tackle climate change and our impact on nature. We are proud in Bristol to have led the way in highlighting what we can do to tackle both the climate and ecological crises at a community level. In doing so, we’re also supporting our recovery from Covid-19 and embedding a new way of life that means we can build back better together.

“It has been two years since we became the first council to announce a climate emergency and in that time significant progress has been made. But there is still so much more we all can and must do.  Climate change action needs to be fair and inclusive. Bristol is embarking on a just transition to carbon neutrality so no one is left behind. We all need to come together and the One City collaborative approach can help us to achieve this and make Bristol a fair, healthy and sustainable city.”