Climate Change – Climate Change Strategy
Coventry has an ambition to become the UK’s leading sustainable green city, taking a central role in the Green Industrial Revolution and improving the quality of lives for all. We are facing unprecedented environmental challenges that threaten the health and prosperity of our planet. Whilst the challenges are significant, this is also a major opportunity to create positive change that can improve the quality of life, health and wellbeing of our residents and create a more prosperous vibrant city. The Council has an important leadership role to play in tackling the causes and consequences of climate change, one its core delivery priorities in the One Coventry Plan.
Coventry was one of the first cities in the UK to launch a Climate Change Strategy back in 2012. The Council launched a new draft Climate Change Strategy in 2023, setting out the Council’s ambitious vision for creating a sustainable net zero city of the future. The Strategy was subject to public consultation and the final version will be launched later this year, alongside a Climate Change Action Plan. The Strategy provides a foundation for the major climate and sustainability challenges and opportunities our city faces and focuses on five pathways to sustainability to address this, based on the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives’ (ICLEI) Five Development Pathways:
- Route to Net Zero Pathway: renewable energy generation; heat networks, retrofitting properties; electrification of vehicles; public transport; active travel, low carbon economy
- Circular Economy Pathway: minimisation of waste, maximising recycling participation and creating new markets to save money and re-use resources.
- Nature Based Pathway: supporting nature’s recovery, maximising the value and use of our blue and green infrastructure for nature and communities, as well as climate resilience, understanding the distribution of species and their conservation status.
- Adaptation and Resilience Pathway: understanding and addressing key risks associated with climate change and a greater incidence of extreme weather events such as flooding, heatwaves, and droughts, and creating more resilient infrastructure, systems and services to adapt to a changing climate.
- Fair Green Future Pathway: delivering a just transition for Coventry, ensuring action taken to tackle climate change helps to address existing inequalities and inequities and not create new ones, leaving no one behind as we move towards a low carbon economy.
The Strategy sets out the opportunities and challenges we face as a city, alongside practical recommendations which have been adopted in our Climate Change Action Plan. The Action Plan will contain a significant number of projects and opportunities to take positive action on climate change and will be used to track progress. It’s important to note that whilst the Council has a key role as a leader and enable in tackling the causes and consequences of Climate Change, the level of change and support needed will require a city-wide effort from residents, communities, businesses and organisations from across Coventry to all play a part. The city’s independent Climate Change Board now has over 25 member organisations working in collaboration creating a catalyst for change.
To complement and inform the Climate Change Strategy, the Council commissioned Professor Andy Gouldson, Co-lead of the Economic and Social Research Council Place-Based Climate Action Network, to create a Net Zero Route Map for Coventry. The Net Zero Route map makes a series of recommendations and priorities areas to focus investment and action. The Climate Change Strategy and Action Plan also provide an opportunity to consolidate and promote much of the work that the Council is currently doing and planning via the Future Cities Board, alongside partnership work with stakeholders including the city’s Independent Climate Change Board.