Climate change is one of the most serious threats facing the world. We are committed to tackling this issue, and we declared a climate emergency in February 2019. We are now working on a new action plan for the city and want your views on our proposals.

Further information

What is the climate emergency?

Human activity produces greenhouses gases, particularly carbon dioxide. These gases cause climate change, raising the average temperature of the world. This is already causing extreme weather, sea level rise and damage to nature. If we don’t take urgent action these impacts will get much worse.

Declaring a climate emergency means we are prepared to play our part. Alongside other cities around the world, we are committed to taking the action needed to prevent climate change becoming much worse.

What are we doing about it?

We have been working to reduce the city’s carbon dioxide emissions for many years. You can read more about our work so far on our sustainability action plan page.

We’re also currently working on a range of projects including:

  • Converting the Park and Ride service at Birstall to use electric buses, to reduce carbon emissions.
  • Installing more solar PV panels on our buildings, including Euston Street Museum Store, to generate clean electricity.
  • Investing £150,000 a year to replace way lighting at council housing properties with LEDs to reduce energy use.
  • Transforming cycling and walking infrastructure in the city through the Connecting Leicester programme and setting up a bike hire scheme.

Have your say in Leicester’s Climate Emergency Conversation

We want everyone to have their say on what we do about the climate emergency. To do this we’re running Leicester’s Climate Emergency Conversation until 9 February 2020.

We have published proposals, explaining what we think Leicester would need to be like as a carbon neutral and climate-adapted city. The proposals include a list of actions which we think could help achieve this.

 

You can also get involved in the discussion, share your ideas and see what others have to say on our interactive Dialogue forum.

 

Are you a community or group?

We have produced a pack to allow any community or group of people in Leicester to run their own climate emergency conversation event. The pack contains a short version of our proposals and a guide on running the event and how you can share your results with us. You can request a pack by sending us an email.

Join our events

We’re also holding two climate assembly events. Attendees will learn more about the climate emergency, and our proposals for what to do about it. They will be able to ask questions and share their thoughts and feelings with us directly, to feed into the wider Climate Emergency Conversation.

Leicester’s climate assembly – Saturday 18 January 2020

This event is aimed at anyone in Leicester, not just those who are already involved with the climate emergency.

If you’d like to apply to take part in the climate assembly, please use our online form to confirm your interest by Tuesday 31 December 2019. Please note, we will ask for some information about you if you apply. This will enable us to select a diverse range of attendees that properly represent Leicester.

Young peoples’ climate assembly – Monday 27 January 2020

This event is similar to Leicester’s Climate Assembly but is specifically for city secondary schools. It is also being supported by the Young People’s Council (YPC). If your school is interested in taking part, please email Lee Jowett.

Contact us

If you have a question about our work on the climate emergency, please use the contact methods below to get in touch or keep up-to-date.

Send us an email
Ring us: 0116 454 2110
Follow us on Twitter (@GreenerLeic)