Since declaring a Climate Emergency in 2019, the city council has positioned emissions reductions as one of its overarching priority, ensuring that the climate emergency sits at the heart of its decisions and strategies.

In 2022, the council decided to build on the CNAP by commissioning a Roadmap to Carbon Neutrality for the Winchester district by 2030. This was produced by consultant WSP over the summer of 2022 and identifies 16 interventions that could be adopted to achieve carbon neutrality as a district by 2030. The Report concludes that intensive work by a range of stakeholders is required but that by working towards a low-emission district, these interventions would support economic development and promote a resilient, low-carbon future for the district. It also provides the evidence base and ranges of measures needed for the Winchester district to work towards carbon neutralilty by 2030.

A range of stakeholders were involved in developing the Carbon Neutrality Roadmap, which underpins council’s commitment to be greener faster.  It was developed following workshops with a number of stakeholders including Winchester Action on Climate Crisis (WinACC), in-depth interviews with Hampshire County Council officers and Wessex Green Hub and a session with a wide range of stakeholders including Cycle Winchester, Friends of the Earth, Sustrans, Hampshire & IoW Wildlife Trust, Winchester BID and many more.

However, the Roadmap has highlighted the need to increase the scale and pace of the interventions with even greater cross organisation working, if the district is to be carbon neutral by 2030. 

The Roadmap modelled 16 interventions covering: domestic, commercial, industrial, transport, land use and waste and was adopted as the evidence base for council actions at a Cabinet Decision Day in January 2023. Critical to the success of achieving carbon neutrality by 2030 will be the contributions made not only by the council, but the County Council, the district’s businesses and its residents – there is a role for everyone.

Cllr Learney, Cabinet Member for the climate emergency commented:

‘We have been proactive ever since our climate emergency was announced, and have made good strides in implementing measures that will reduce the carbon footprint of the district; however, we needed further evidence to tell us if what we are doing will reach our target.

The Roadmap tells us we must act faster, not only with what we are able to do as a district council, but also working with partners – it is very clear a collaborative approach is needed to achieve a carbon neutral district, but we must strive forward and show leadership. For this reason, our new council plan will refocus our efforts to be greener faster and this will be central to what we are doing.’

Adoption of the Roadmap as its evidence base now enables the council to develop its future carbon neutrality strategies and actions. Work is also needed to identify who is best placed to lead the delivery of the interventions and the council will refocus its efforts, seeking funding for the measures which have the greatest potential to reduce emissions.