Climate change strategy for 2025 to 2030 Context

Introduction to climate change

The climate of the Earth is changing, with temperatures rising across the planet in a process often referred to as global warming or heating. Scientists overwhelmingly agree that the reason for this change is the burning of fossil fuels by humans, alongside other activities which emit greenhouse gases.1 

Greenhouse gases are substances which make it harder for heat to escape from the surface of the Earth. This means that when we release more of these gases into the atmosphere, we receive more heat from the sun than we release to space, meaning that the Earth heats up. Hotter objects radiate more heat away, so the heating continues until the planet is radiating enough heat into space again to match the energy coming in from the sun.2

Carbon dioxide, produced by burning fossil fuels and organic matter, is the most significant of these gases, but others such as methane also have a big impact. As long as we continue to increase the level of these gases in the atmosphere, the planet will continue to warm. To avoid further changes to the climate, we therefore need to reduce net emissions of these gases to zero. This is also known as reaching “net zero”.3

This means that if we continue with activities which produce these gases, we will need to remove an equivalent amount of them from the atmosphere. There is currently no method of removing greenhouse gases from the atmosphere at the scale which would be needed to compensate for emissions at current levels. This means that to reduce net emissions at the speed we need to, we will need to make large reductions in emissions of greenhouse gases.

The impacts of climate change on people, society and nature around the world will include:4

  • sea level rises and increased flood risk
  • more and worse extreme weather events, such as heatwaves, which may cause damage or harm people
  • biodiversity loss and species extinction
  • risks to food and water security
  • spread of pests and diseases to new areas

Climate change poses a significant risk to Bracknell Forest and its residents. However, the impacts of climate change will be felt most severely in less economically developed areas of the world, which also have less capacity to respond. This makes reducing our emissions even more urgent.

The Paris Agreement, signed in 2015, is a key international agreement on climate change. It commits us to limiting global temperature increases to well below 2oC, while pursuing efforts to limit the increase to 1.5oC.5 The UN’s Sustainable Development Goals also have a climate focus, with goal 13 being “Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts”.6 In the UK, national legislation commits us to reaching net zero emissions by 2050 and reducing emissions by 78% by 2035 (compared to 1990).7

This strategy has been developed based on in-depth research and engagement focusing on Bracknell Forest, and has had input from councillors, council staff and residents. Its focus is reducing emissions so that Bracknell Forest reaches net zero as soon as possible, and preparing for the effects of climate change on the borough so that it is protected and ready to respond.