Our 2038 vision

Tackling climate change is an important part of Our Council Plan 2021/23. Our vision is for a 'Net Zero and Climate Ready Kirklees by 2038'.

This provides Kirklees with focus on both mitigation and adaptation to climate change.

For mitigation, carbon emissions from human activities within Kirklees will need to be dramatically reduced to zero, with any remaining emissions safely removed from the atmosphere.

Adaptation is about strengthening Kirklees' process for adjusting to the actual and expected climate and its effects. Taking action on adaptation will reduce the potential impact that our changing climate - through flooding, storms, and higher temperatures, will have on Kirklees.

Why we must act now

Greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide trap heat, helping to warm the Earth. The amount of carbon emissions within the atmosphere is now causing an overall warming of the planet, corresponding in the devastating impacts already being felt.

Kirklees has and will continue to experience the impacts of a changing climate, with extreme weather such as heat waves and rainfall resulting in moorland fires and flooding across the district.

These events will occur more often and becoming harder-hitting if we continue to emit greenhouse gases, being experienced more keenly by the most vulnerable, disadvantaged, and marginalised groups within Kirklees.

It is vitally important that Kirklees acts to both reduce emissions and plan to reduce the impacts the district will experience due to our changing climate.