Reducing carbon emissions and improving air quality
Performance reflections
There are 2 key reasons for the expected drop in the number of Coventry businesses receiving advice on carbon reduction. The level of funding for these activities was cut, with UK Shared Prosperity Fund no longer funding Energy and Resource Efficiency Audits. Secondly, WMCA (in liaison with DESNZ) wanted the Business Energy Advice Service to put a stronger emphasis on supporting more energy-intensive businesses and imposed a minimum energy usage requirement of 25MWH for firms to be eligible for the scheme, which significantly reduced the pool of Coventry businesses that could potentially be supported.
Energy services have engaged 70 schools with some form of advice or support in the city. SEP have engaged 2 schools with Primary Aspirations Project, in addition to Coventry College, Sidney Stringer and Coventry University. The Sustainability team also worked with 3 schools as part of the Retrofit Rocks projects with University of Warwick.
All primary schools got a copy of the Aaron's book launch - books from Coventry author Aaron Ashmore, which celebrate the city's rich heritage. Twenty-two schools were also engaged for an adaptation and resilience plan, looking at what the schools would need to prevent overheating.
Data on Carbon dioxide emissions from local authority operations is an annual figure that can not be reported on yet. It is usually available within June/July for the preceding financial year data.
Coventry's Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) Score has improved from a B to an A in the latest data, which is subject to an independent assessment and provides a useful benchmarking tool against other global cities. The increase in scoring reflects the Council's Climate Change Strategy now being operational, delivery of the Action Plan underway and significant work to improve the city's response and highlight processes the team have in place.
This puts Coventry in the top cohort of cities globally in terms of action being taken to tackle the causes and consequences of climate change. This includes carbon reduction, climate resilience and nature recovery.
Actions taken in year
Due to ongoing funding constraints, the capacity to support a higher volume of businesses from April 2026 onwards may be more limited. However, there will likely be a new Regional Energy Service, which will continue to be more targeted towards higher energy users, and there will be a need to maximise promotion of the new service amongst business support intermediaries to ensure that those firms who most need the support take up the service, and that the service delivers stronger impacts in terms of energy cost savings, profitability and carbon reductions relative to levels of public investment.
Increase in energy service engagement was as a result of non-SLA (service level agreement) schools asking us for DECs or having support for projects. The Strategic Energy Partnership (SEP) are planning to engage with all maintained schools in the coming year.
Number of planning policies in line with the Global Goals for climate action is also an annual figure that can not be reported on as yet. It is usually available within June/July for the preceding financial year data.