Tackling climate change brings significant benefits to all people in Surrey. It's vital that we take action to protect our local economy and supply chains.
We also need to improve home energy efficiency to lower fuel bills, and keep our homes free of damp and mould to ensure we stay healthy, in turn reducing pressure on local health services.
We must also protect homes in Surrey from increasingly frequent and severe episodes of extreme weather and the associated impacts, such as flooding.
Our vision is for a county that has good air quality, and a healthy population with a reduced risk of cardiovascular and respiratory illnesses, including childhood asthma.
Importantly it also means reversing Surrey's worrying nature loss, which is above the national average, and restoring our native habitats whilst protecting a rural way of life.
If we don't take action on this, then the risks to Surrey residents and businesses are wide ranging and extremely concerning, and we'll see significant damage to property, public health, and the collapse of supply chains and potentially food shortage.
Thankfully, 68% of Surrey residents rate action on climate change as 'extremely' or 'very' important, so there is already a lot of collaborative work happening. In fact, only 5% of Surrey residents don't agree that tackling the climate crisis is important! So get involved today and help drive efforts in your local area.
Surrey's Community Vision for 2030
Surrey's Community Vision for 2030 contains the ambition that:
"Residents live in clean, safe and green communities, where people and organisations embrace their environmental responsibilities"
This ambition reflects the shared ambition of Surrey's 12 local authorities that our residents live in clean, safe and green communities, where people and organisations embrace their environmental responsibilities.
In support of this ambition – and the UK's commitment to achieving net zero carbon emissions by 2050 – on 9 July 2019 the council declared a 'climate emergency' and committed to work with partners to agree Surrey's collective response.
We have since published Surrey's Climate Change Strategy, our organisational 2030 Net Zero Carbon Plan (PDF), Climate Change Delivery Plan and New Tree Strategy which establish the approach for how Surrey's local authorities and other partners will work together to put the county on the path to net zero carbon emissions and strengthen our climate resilience.
In November 2023 we published both our Net Zero 2030 Progress Report (PDF) and our Climate Change Whole Programme Assessment (PDF), detailing the progress we've made to date on our journey to becoming a carbon free council.
Our success lies in us all taking action to shift our behaviour and to live more sustainable lives to help safeguard our communities and the environment.
What we have done so far
- Committed £48 million to ensure that within 10 years all buses in Surrey are ultra-low or zero emission vehicles
- Invested over £6m in new in cycling and walking routes to help people rely less on their cars
- With our district partners across Surrey, we have been successful in obtaining £14m of Government funding to help low income households to improve the energy efficiency of their home, saving carbon and reducing fuel bills
- Produced a new Surrey Transport Plan, which is currently out for consultation, aiming to support people out of private fossil-fuel powered cars, to help reduce the 46% of carbon emissions generated by transport
- Converted nearly half of our 89,000 streetlights into LEDs, which is predicted to use 65% less energy and save £2 million every year
- Begun the Farnham Infrastructure Programme aimed at tackling congestion and air quality in Farnham and surrounding areas.
- Trailed new greener highways equipment to reduce the impact on our environment when carrying out works
- Committed to planting 1.2 million trees – one for every Surrey resident – by 2030 to help absorb carbon dioxide
- Working to reduce the flood risk for 11,000 homes and 1,600 businesses in communities along the River Thames following our £270m investment and Government approval of the latest stage of the scheme
- Achieved the 3rd best recycling rate in England - one of the most important ways we can help to reduce global warming and climate change.
Files available to download
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Surrey's climate change strategy summary (PDF)
Executive summary of Surrey's Climate Change Strategy, the county's collective approach to tackle climate change. -
Surrey's new tree strategy summary (PDF)
Executive summary with the highlights of Surrey's New Tree Strategy which aims to plant 1.2million new trees by 2030.
