Leeds Carbon Roadmap
As Leeds was the first climate commission to go live (in 2017), the data we are able to share at this point is from the Leeds Carbon Roadmap. This the city’s carbon budget – the amount of carbon emissions (as a proportion of the global carbon budget) that Leeds can emit between now and 2050 in order to stay within the 1.5°C temperature rise recommended by a United Nations special report released in October 2018.
The science-based carbon roadmap report, produced by a team led by Andy Gouldson, Professor of Environmental Policy at the University of Leeds, sets out carbon targets and a roadmap for reducing Leeds’ emissions in line with UN recommendations.For Leeds, that means cutting its 2005 level of emissions by the following:
- 70% by 2025
- 85% by 2030
- 95% by 2035
- 97% by 2040
- 99% by 2045
- 100% (zero carbon) by 2050.
While the roadmap shows a pathway to zero carbon by 2050, it also shows that even a combination of all of the currently available options does not deliver the emissions reductions necessary, leaving a substantial gap. To close the gap, the roadmap looks at a range of innovative actions, which, if all are achieved, would make it possible to close this gap and for Leeds to become carbon neutral by 2050.
In 27 March 2019, Leeds City Council members voted in favour of declaring a climate emergency. The Motion included a resolution to sign up to a science based carbon reduction target that is consistent with achieving the Paris Agreement of no more than 1.5°C global temperature increase. It also resolved to work to make Leeds carbon neutral by 2030. In response to this, the Leeds carbon roadmap goes on to show that the highly ambitious 2030 target could be achieved, if behavioural actions that make a global contribution are also accounted for.
Read the full report in the downloads below.
Data
We are happy to publish most of the data underpinning the Leeds Carbon Roadmap. The data comes from a wide range of sources, with links/references provided where possible. Data from different sources is then combined and analysed, and the results are presented in the downloads on this page. Some of our input data is copyright protected and some is commercially sensitive so cannot be republished.
