Our Climate Emergency Action Plan
Westminster has some of the highest carbon emissions and worst air pollution in the UK. In response, we have set an emissions target for the City to reach net zero by 2040.
Our Climate Emergency Action Plan sets out comprehensive actions for reducing carbon emissions across the City, working in partnership with businesses, communities and residents.
Read our new Climate Emergency Action Plan:
Progress on our Climate Emergency Action Plan
We’re publishing our report to reflect on a year of the progress since the release of our Climate Emergency Action Plan in November 2021. Over the past year we've had some great achievements, but we also acknowledge that there is lots more that we need to do and we want to be as ambitious as possible.
Highlights from the last year:
- installed energy conservation measures in 61 council buildings, cutting our corporate property emissions by around 1700 tonnes of CO2 equivalent per year
- improved 450 council homes with energy efficiency measures and clean heating systems
- invested £58m from the council pension fund in to renewable energy infrastructure
- launched our Responsible Procurement Strategy to put greater emphasis on sustainability within supplier contracts
- delivered over 1500 electric vehicle charge points across the borough
Read the full report below:
In 2023 we will bring our community into the decision making process on climate action. Working in partnership we will deliver local policies, projects, and solutions. Over the next year we will be:
- creating a Citizens’ Climate Assembly, where residents will be randomly selected and invited to help inform climate decision-making in Westminster
- establishing Community Climate Champions and Youth Champions voluntary networks
- working with the Resident Research Panel, Westminster's newly established panel of representative residents who will participate in research to provide us feedback on our climate work
Co-producing our Action Plan
Over summer 2021, over 350 people provided feedback on our draft recommendations. We have taken that feedback into account in creating a shared action plan. We have tried to make sure that it is inclusive and reflects the scale and urgency with which we must all act. We recognise that we don’t have all the solutions yet, and we are committed to working with our partners and communities to continually refine our approach.
Our new plan contains 70 actions, including what the Council must do to reduce its own emissions, and what we can do to enable and influence others to act.
Some highlights include:
- a raft of measures to make transport more sustainable, including 23km of extra cycle lanes and 500 more EV charging points - Westminster already has more on street charging points than any other borough, and we’ll also be trialling charging points for commercial vans
- new funding and support to help residents, small businesses and community groups install renewable energy technologies and make energy savings
- a climate education programme for schools
- expanding food waste recycling across the borough
- a sustainable city charter, being developed alongside leading landowners and developers, to help businesses cut emissions
Links to other policies
Our Climate Emergency Action Plan is primarily focused on actions to reduce Greenhouse Gases, but interlinks closely with a range of other Council policies on connected areas, including:
- Air Quality: see our Air Quality Action Plan
- Environmental Policy: See our City Plan, Environmental Supplementary Planning Document and Code of Construction Practice
- Freight & Delivery Traffic Reduction: See our Freight, Servicing and Delivery Strategy 2021-2040
- Biodiversity: See A Partnership Approach to Open Spaces and Biodiversity