Stevenage Climate Action Plan

SBC Emissions Baseline and Expected Trajectory

The Council has estimated its own emissions baseline, based on 2018 data, including emissions from its main buildings (electricity and gas consumption) and fuel consumption (SBC's owned fleet and grey fleet). The Sankey Diagram below shows the evolution of SBC's emissions reduction commitment starting from its 2018 baseline.

• Our annual emissions baseline as a Council was nearly 3,400 tCO_2e in 2018.
• 35.7% of these emissions (1,212 tCO_2e/year) have been saved by switching our electricity tariff to zero carbon since 2020 (Action EW5).
• Up to now we have reduced about 40% of the emissions considered in our baseline. By 2023, our emissions were roughly 2,060 tCO_2e.
• In February 2024, the Council agreed to switch the fuel consumption of our fleet and machinery to HVO (Action TR1), further reducing over 700 tCO_2e per year.
• Once this is fully implemented our remaining emissions by 2025 will be 1,334 tCO_2e/year, a reduction of 61% compared to our 2018 baseline.
• Other major future projects include the new low-carbon Leisure and Swimming Centre and Civic Hub.
• Our remaining emissions by 2030 (from our 2018 emissions baseline) will be around 300 tCO_2e/year, primarily related to natural gas consumption for heating.
• Summarising, our progress so far and our challenge forward are shown in the figure below.

SBC Emissions Reduction (2018-2030)

Below is the trajectory of our emissions in the recent past (since our emissions baseline was created) and in the future towards 2030, based on the major projects we are implementing so far. A remaining challenge is already identified to be addressed by our further climate action.

Stevenage Territorial GHG Emissions

Based on the UK Department of Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) data at UK Local Authority and Regional GHG Emissions National Statistics, the territorial GHG emissions for Stevenage are presented below.

• These figures are produced by central government taking into account a complex array of energy and resources use data.
• The information shows a slight 2.90% increase in total emissions in 2021 (376.7 ktCO_2e) compared to 2020 levels (365.8 ktCO_2e), driven by recovery from the pandemic.
• However, a reduction of 14.5% in 2021 (the latest available year) total GHG emissions compared to 2018, our baseline year (431.7 ktCO_2e), can be observed.
• By 2021, the main sectors in terms of GHG emissions in Stevenage were:
  • Residential Sector (29%, 108.5 ktCO_2e);
  • Transport (28%, 105.4 ktCO_2e);
  • Industry (17%, 63.6 ktCO_2e);
  • Commercial Sector (14%, 54.1 ktCO_2e);
  • Public Sector (7%, 24.8 ktCO_2e); and
  • Waste Management (5%, 17.5 ktCO_2e).

Further Information

The Council published an evidence-based Climate Change Strategy - September 2020 (stevenage.gov.uk) in September 2020 following the declaration of climate emergency and an extensive public engagement and consultation.

For an overview of the progress of the Council's response to the Climate Emergency, please refer to our annual progress update and the scrutiny review report

• For 2020-2021 Climate Change Update Report.pdf (stevenage.gov.uk).
• For 2021 – 2022 Climate Change October 22 Update Report.pdf (stevenage.gov.uk)
• For 2022 - 2023 Climate Change October 23 Update Report.pdf (stevenage.gov.uk)
• SBC’s Environment & Economy Select Committee scrutiny review report Final Report - Climate Change Emergency Scrutiny Review for EE agenda 17 01 23.pdf (stevenage.gov.uk) and the formal response Executive Member Response to Environment & Economy Select Committee Review of the Council’s response to the Climate Emergency