CN28 - Our Mission

What is climate change?

Over the past 50 years, our planet’s temperature has increased at the fastest rate on record.

Greenhouse gases, like carbon dioxide (CO2), trap heat in the Earth’s atmosphere, and human activities are increasing these gases. When we burn fossil fuels to do things like heating buildings, driving cars, and flying planes, we produce greenhouse gases.

This is causing our planet to get hotter – and we’re seeing more heatwaves, frequent droughts, heavier rainfall, flooding, and more powerful storms as a result.

Our planet’s future might seem gloomy, but there is still time to act.

That’s why we’ve set an ambition to be the first carbon neutral city in the UK by 2028. We need to do what we can to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide we release into the atmosphere – can you help us reach our goal?

How is the climate crisis impacting Nottingham?

In Nottingham, and in the rest of the world, we’re seeing the impacts of climate change. We’re already seeing more extreme and frequent weather events worldwide – including heatwaves, flooding, and wildfires. In July 2022, we saw the hottest temperature ever recorded in the UK. 40.3 degrees Celsius was recorded in Lincolnshire during the 2022 heatwave.

Cities are particularly prone to climate events such as heatwaves and flooding. Heatwaves can be more extreme in cities because surfaces like concrete absorb heat during the day and release it slowly during the night. Flooding can also be an issue in cities as surface water arises and large areas of concrete do not let water through.

It is important that we protect the city from the impacts of climate change and avoid impacts such as property damage, impacts to people’s health, travel delays, and more.

What’s Nottingham’s plan?

In Nottingham, a Climate and Ecological Emergency was declared by the City Council in January 2020. This means that tackling the climate crisis became one of the top priorities for the city.

Since then, Nottingham set an ambition to be the first carbon neutral city in the UK by 2028. To help us get there, we created an action plan that has more than 250 actions. Completing these will help us to reduce the city’s carbon emissions, remove carbon emissions from the atmosphere, protect the city from the impacts of climate change, and also improve nature in Nottingham.