Use this page to learn more about the Climate and Ecological Emergencies, explore their impact and understand what we are doing to tackle them.
The Climate Emergency
In 2019, we declared a climate emergency, referring to our current situation in which urgent action is required to reduce or halt climate change.
Climate change refers to long-term shifts in global temperatures and weather patterns. While these shifts can occur naturally, human activity has been the main driver since the 1800s, mainly through the burning of fossil fuels.
Burning fossil fuels releases greenhouse gases that trap heat in the atmosphere and raise global temperatures. Other major sources of greenhouse gas emissions include:
- Changes in land use and deforestation, which reduce the number of trees able to absorb carbon dioxide.
- Agriculture, which produces emissions from energy use, livestock, and the application of fertilisers.
- Industrial processes, such as the manufacture of cement, chemicals, and metals, which release greenhouse gases directly into the atmosphere.
To learn more, you can read the Met Office's 'What is Climate Change?' page.
Why this matters
As global temperatures rise, the climate is shifting in several interconnected ways, including:
- warming oceans
- melting polar ice and glaciers
- rising sea levels
- changes in weather patterns
What this means for the UK
Climate change is a global issue, but its impacts are also being felt here in the UK. These changes are already visible today and are expected to become more severe as greenhouse gas emissions and temperatures continue to increase. Across the UK, we expect to see warmer, wetter winters; hotter, drier summers; more frequent and intense extreme weather; and sea levels rising.
Find out what climate change could look like in your area.
Changes to our climate pose a wide range of risks and potential impacts, including:
- pressure on water supplies
- loss of biodiversity
- increased flooding
- food insecurity
- risk to health and wellbeing (especially for our most vulnerable communities)
- disruption to infrastructure and services, including energy, transport, and digital
The UK Government assesses these risks every five years in its UK Climate Change Risk Assessment. You can read their latest report for more detail.
Unequal impacts of climate change
Climate change does not affect everyone equally. How much a person or group is affected depends on many interacting factors. Climate risks intersect with existing health and social inequalities, meaning people and groups facing multiple forms of disadvantage are disproportionately vulnerable to the impacts of climate change.
Learn more on Climate Just's website.
Climate mitigation
Climate mitigation refers to actions to reduce or remove greenhouse gas emissions which are causing global warming. Net Zero means reducing these greenhouse gas emissions by 100%.
We have committed to cut operational carbon emissions to Net Zero by 2030, with a focus on decarbonising buildings and transport, and increasing renewable energy generation.
The council tracks elements of our scope 3 emissions and publishes progress in our annual Climate & Nature Progress report. There is more work to do to broaden our action for our scope 3 emissions, for example, via the 2024 Procurement Strategy.
Climate adaptation
Climate adaptation is the process of preparing for and adjusting to current and future changes to the climate. This includes changes to our local climate that may impact us directly (e.g. increasing risk of flooding and heatwaves) and changes to the climate in other parts of the UK and world that may impact us indirectly (e.g. causing disruption to food supply chains and increasing food prices).
Actions that we can take to better prepare and adapt to the changing climate will reduce risk of harm, and include small scale interventions (e.g. de-paving driveways, planting street trees and installing shutters on windows) up to landscape scale interventions (e.g. slowing the flow of water in upper catchments and restoring floodplains). Many of the actions we need to take to recover nature and reduce our greenhouse gas emissions are also good for building climate resilience. Investing now reduces risk and cost in the long-term.
Read more about climate adaptation and the UK Government National Adaptation Programme here.
Read the West of England Climate Adaptation Report here.
The Ecological Emergency
In July 2020, we declared an Ecological Emergency, recognising the severity of the degradation of the natural environment and loss of wildlife, and the urgency of action to restore nature.
Globally, nationally and locally, nature is collapsing at an alarming rate. Over the past couple of centuries, humanity’s use of land and resources has placed unsustainable pressure on nature, threatening the stability of ecosystems both globally and locally:
- Globally, wild animal populations have declined by an average of 73%.
- In the UK, we have seen long-term declines in insect species such as butterflies and moths (25% since 1970 for the latter); a 64% decline in the abundance of UK Priority Species; and a 54% decline in breeding farmland birds. 43% of bird species and 26% of terrestrial mammal species in the country are now threatened with extinction.
- In the West of England region, figures from the BTO suggest that numbers of once common birds such as swifts and cuckoos have dropped by up to 95% in the past 25 years alone.
The causes behind this
There is a range of different but overlapping factors behind this decline. These include:
- Changes in land use and land management
- The use of pesticides and other pollutants
- The modification of our waterways
- The presence of invasive non-native species
- Climate change
- A failure to factor in the costs of these impacts within our economic systems
Why it matters
The Ecological Emergency matters to all of us because of the vital role that wildlife and nature play in supporting our wellbeing, society and economy.
The UK Government have recently published a report showing that biodiversity loss is putting key ecosystem services at risk, including clean water, food, clean air and other vital resources. This poses a critical threat to both national and global security.
Read the government's report on biodiversity loss here.
Links between the Climate and Ecological Emergencies
While the Climate Emergency and the Ecological Emergency are not the same, they are linked. Both emergencies share some of the same causes, such as over-consumption of resources, and changes in land use.
Many of the solutions for tackling the Ecological Emergency - such as reducing consumption of meat and dairy or restoring habitats - will also help us to mitigate climate change.
Nature-based solutions, such as well-placed woodland and wetland creation, can be important tools in building resilience to the impacts of climate change, while contributing to nature's recovery and capturing carbon from out of the atmosphere.
If we tackle climate change, we will also help to reduce the pressure on nature.
A National Emergency
The Climate and Ecological Emergencies threaten all aspects of British life, from national security to the food supply.
In November 2025, ten of the UK's leading experts briefed an audience of politicians and leaders from across industry and society. The briefing set out the implications of climate and nature breakdown for health, food systems, national security and the economy.