Climate Change and Air Quality Progress Report 2023 to 2024

The challenges faced both locally and globally over the 12 months covered in this report, the third year since adoption of our Climate Change & Air Quality Strategy, have been significant. The effects of climate change become ever more visible in our own experience and in what we hear and read on the news. This makes it even more important that we are able to present an update in our third annual progress report covering 12 months of activity from across the council. As you will read throughout this report we have continued to deliver; both by building upon the success of our first two years and by introducing new measures and initiatives to mitigate and adapt to climate change.

With regards to building on success, our Tree Planting Programme, the Bucks Tree Mission, continues to move forward with almost 193,000 trees planted in the first three years of our 10 year Mission. Further, thanks to the hard work of our Environmental Protection Officers, we are now in the process of formally revoking four of our nine AQMAs due to improvements in the air quality indicators.

Yet we are not resting on our laurels; rather we continue to plan for the future through strategic planning. Whether it is our new Local Plan for Bucks, our next – and first Bucks wide – Local Travel Plan, or our Local Walking Infrastructure Plan, climate change and future sustainability is a key consideration across them all.

- Councillor Thomas Broom