Tackling the climate emergency in Leicester

In November 2023 we published a draft of our new Climate Emergency Action Plan and launched a two-part consultation.

The first part asked individuals and organisations what they are already doing about climate change, and what the barriers are to doing more. The second part asked for views on the aims and objectives of our draft plan. We also asked about people’s overall priorities for the city.

903 responses were received in total, 850 from individuals and 53 on behalf of organisations.

Questions on priorities for the city and individual’s climate action:

When asked about their top priorities for Leicester, respondents identified the cost of living as the most important. This was followed by jobs, safer neighbourhoods, and climate change.

When asked about their own climate action many people had already taken steps to reduce their carbon footprint at home and from travel. The main reasons for acting were to make homes more comfortable, save money and improve health. Many people also said they wanted to play their part in tackling climate change. The main barrier to taking more action was the cost of doing so.

Questions on organisations’ climate action:

Many of the organisations which responded confirmed they have started to tackle their own climate impacts. This included measures to reduce emissions from their buildings, introducing climate policies and developing their own action plans.

Many of the organisations also confirmed that they are already experiencing the effects or climate change, or they expect to soon. This included the effects of storms or flooding and heatwaves as well as customers’ or funders’ expectations to see action taken.

Questions on the draft action plan:

Respondents were asked if they agreed with the five main aims of the action plan. A majority of respondents answered either ‘Yes’ or ‘Yes, with some changes’ for all of the aims.

The aims with the highest level of support were ensuring that Leicester is adapted and resilient to the effects of climate change, and our wider vision for a climate ready city. There was less agreement with the aims of achieving net zero emissions and reducing emissions from outside the city, although a majority did support these.

Comments provided show that people were concerned about the costs of taking action. Of those people who did not support the aims, many commented that they did not want to see the introduction of motorist charging schemes, such as a workplace parking levy.

People were also asked if they agreed with a number of more specific objectives across the different areas of the action plan. A majority answered either ‘Yes’ or ‘Yes, with some changes’ for all of the objectives.

The most popular objectives were making buildings more energy efficient, tackling waste, using nature-based solutions to tackle climate impacts and increasing local renewable energy generation.

There was less agreement with introducing heat pumps, increasing walking, cycling and public transport, and moving to electric cars and vans, although these were still supported by a majority.

Written comments showed that cost was again the main concern. Other issues raised included the reliability of public transport, the effectiveness of heat pumps and issues with charging of electric vehicles.

We are grateful to all those who took the time to participate in this consultation and welcome the information they provided. We have used the responses received to make a number of changes to the action plan.

One significant area of concern was around motorist charging schemes. Following a previous public consultation which rejected a proposed workplace parking levy we can confirm that these schemes were never intended to be part of this action plan. We have updated the action plan to remove any mention of these schemes.

The consultation also identified that the cost-of-living, jobs and other issues are top priorities for the many people. We’ve therefore updated the action plan to make it clearer that many of the planned actions aim to provide ‘co-benefits’ in tackling these issues as well, which we will also be measuring and reporting.

Another key issue raised throughout the consultation was the possible cost to individuals of taking action. We’ve updated the plan to make it clearer that our approach is to support people with any changes, and to secure funding, where we can, to help with the costs of improvements. As part of this we’ve made “A people-centered transition” one of our five key aims in the action plan.

We will also continue to use the information we’ve collected to look at other concerns and barriers to action and ways to tackle them going forwards.

The action plan, which we have renamed the Climate Ready Leicester Plan, has now been finalised and formally adopted by the council. It is available on the Climate Ready Leicester page of our website. Progress reports on the plan will also be published on this page in the future.