Climate change

Climate change is one of the greatest challenges we face globally and locally. The council has a long track record of taking action on climate change both to reduce Reading’s emissions of the greenhouse gases which are causing climate change, and to prepare for the impacts. As our understanding of the potential impacts has improved, the urgency of the need to act has become apparent. As a result, the council declared a ‘climate emergency’ in February 2019.

Borough-wide action on climate change

The council’s direct emissions represent only a small part of Reading’s emissions overall (less than 1.5%). It is therefore vital that we work in partnership with communities, organisations, businesses and individuals across Reading to promote the need for action and co-ordinate our efforts. We do this through the Reading Climate Change Partnership, of which the council is a founding member. Following the declaration of a climate emergency, the Partnership developed a new Reading Climate Emergency Strategy 2020-25, setting out the pathway to achieving the goal of ‘a net zero carbon, resilient Reading’ by 2030. The Partnership’s website sets our plans in detail and includes advice on what you can do to help tackle climate change. The Partnership’s website. This is the latest Annual Report on delivery of the Reading Climate Emergency Strategy 2025-30.

Corporate action on climate change

It is important for the council to lead by example in reducing emissions as we encourage everyone in Reading to do the same. We have already reduced our own emissions by 71% since 2008/09, and have plans to reduce this still further – by 85% by 2025 and to ‘net zero’ by 2030. Our corporate Carbon Plan 2020-25 sets out our plans for the next five years to achieve this. This is the council’s latest annual Greenhouse Gas Emissions report for 2023/24 .

Adapting to climate change

Climate change is happening now and even if we were to stop using fossil fuels overnight we would face decades of changes to the climate due to the vast quantities of greenhouse gases that we have released into the atmosphere.  This will cause impacts on all of us including increased temperatures in summer, increased flooding and stormy events.  These risks to our society are not evenly distributed, some people will be more vulnerable.  Adapting to the changing climate involves managing our climate risks.  Reading has introduced an adaptation framework which sets out how we will approach protecting our communities from the impacts of climate change.

Low carbon economy

There are very significant economic opportunities for Reading in developing environmentally-friendly technologies, renewable energy and other ‘green’ industries. We work closely with our partners Reading’s Economy & Destination Agency REDA, to pursue these opportunities.

Heat Networks

The following feasibility study was carried out using match funding from the government’s Heat Network Delivery Unit.  This study provides the detail of a prospective cluster to the ‘North of Station’ area which was selected from the four clusters outlined in the Heatmapping and Master Planning study carried out in in Reading and follow.  The government intends that around 20% of UK heat will be supplied using Heat Networks by 2050 and is bringing forward heat network zoning regulations to ensure that buildings connect.   Reading’s proposals centre around the use of its rivers and aquifers to source heat for its buildings.