Climate Change and Air Quality Progress Report 2022 to 2023
Progress against targets: Objective A
Objective A:
Achieve net zero carbon emissions across council operations no later than 2050 and possibly before this, potentially by 2030, subject to resources.
Council carbon emissions 2022/23
We have calculated our own emissions for the period 2022-23 and the results are shown in table 2. In line with our reporting criteria, we include those emissions arising from the Council’s operations such as the buildings and vehicles we operate or those associated with the transmission and distribution of electricity that the Council uses. Business travel emissions relate to staff and councillors travelling in their own vehicles where a mileage expense claim was made. Emissions from the use of public transport, such as train journeys, for work travel weren’t captured as the data was not available. We have excluded emissions from our operations where our staff do not directly provide the service, for example waste collection vehicles operated around Wycombe, Chiltern and South Buckinghamshire areas.
The following table shows our 2022/23 emissions broken down into key components and reported on a gross basis:
| Activity | 2022/23 Annual Carbon Emissions (tCO2e) | % of annual emissions |
|---|---|---|
| Buildings - Gas Consumption | 2,046 | 29% |
| Buildings - Electricity Consumption (Gross) | 1,668 | 23% |
| Street lighting - Electricity Consumptions (Gross) | 1,528 | 21% |
| Council fleet | 931 | 13% |
| Business travel | 681 | 10% |
| Transmission and distribution | 294 | 4% |
| Total (Gross) | 7,148 |
Our total gross emissions for the reporting period were 7,148 tCO2e.
From October 2022 we have purchased our electricity using a 100% renewable tariff, fully backed by Renewable Electricity Guarantees of Origin (REGO) certificates. This has resulted in a substantial reduction in the emissions associated with electricity use due to the lower carbon intensity of the renewable tariff. In line with guidance and our commitment to transparency, we are reporting our “Gross” (shown previous page) and “Net” (shown right) emissions separately in the following table.
The net emissions for 2022/23 are 5,401 tCO2e. From this point on in the report, we will be referring only to “Net” emissions.
| Activity | 2022/23 Annual Carbon Emissions | % of annual emissions |
|---|---|---|
| Buildings - Gas Consumption | 2046 | 37.9% |
| Buildings - Electricity Consumption (Net) | 778 | 14.4% |
| Street lighting - Electricity Consumptions (Net) | 673 | 12.5% |
| Council fleet (non Electric Vehicles) (Net) | 924 | 17.1% |
| Fleet (Electric Vehicles) (Net) | 5 | 0.1% |
| Business travel | 681 | 12.6% |
| Transmission and distribution | 294 | 5.4% |
| Total (Net) | 5,401 |
Figure 2 - Chart showing Council emissions broken down on a net basis
| Values | Percentage (%) | |
|---|---|---|
| Buildings - Gas Consumption | 2,046 | 37.9% |
| Buildings - Electricity Consumption (Net) | 778 | 14.4% |
| Street lighting - Electricity Consumptions (Net) | 673 | 12.5% |
| Council fleet (non Electric Vehicles) (Net) | 924 | 17.1% |
| Fleet (Electric Vehicles) (Net) | 5 | 0.1% |
| Business travel | 681 | 12.6% |
| Transmission and distribution | 294 | 5.4% |
The most significant source of emissions on a net basis is gas consumption for buildings, representing almost 38% of the total, while the second largest source of emissions is the Council’s non-electrified fleet.
Carbon budget
On our journey to Net Zero Carbon by 2050 we have several way markers to ensure that we remain on track.
Compared to our 1990 baseline of 20,550 tCO2eq we will:
● reduce our annual carbon emissions by at least 75% by 2030, to no more than 5,137.5 tCO2eq
● reduce our annual carbon emissions by at least 90% by 2040, to no more than 2,055 tCO2eq
● reach net zero carbon emissions by 2050
For 2023 we are reporting a reduction in emissions of 73.7% as compared to our 1990 emissions, this compares favourably with and indicates that we are on track to achieve our target of a 75% reduction by 2030.
We also set out a Carbon Budget for the seven year period from 2020-21 to 2026-27, in Table 5 of our Climate Change Strategy, with indicative annual allocations and a total budget of 51,139 tCO2e. The two graphs below show both the cumulative total against our seven year budget and annual totals against allocations:
Figure 3 - Remaining and used carbon budget 2020 to 2027
| Used and remaining budget | Emissions '20-'23 | Remaining '23-'27 |
|---|---|---|
| Carbon budget | 18,952 | 32,187 |
Figure 4 - Annual carbon emissions and allocations
Although we have seen an increase in gross emissions for 2022/23, this is consistent with the area wide trend referred to under Aim 1, emissions in 2020/21 and 2021/22 were both severely affected by the Covid pandemic.
As shown, we have seen a marked decrease in our net emissions for the reporting period 2022/23. This has been significantly driven by the procurement of low carbon electricity since October 2022.