Climate Change Strategy

Greenhouse Gas Emissions for South Ribble Borough Council

South Ribble reports the greenhouse gas emissions for the Council, its assets and the Borough on an annual basis.  The latest report is available on the climate pages of the South Ribble website Climate Change – South Ribble.

Since 2019/20, overall Council emissions have decreased.  Improved data capture and transparency may increase scope 3 emissions over the coming years, but enable us to identify further areas for improvement.

Figure 4 – South Ribble Borough Council annual greenhouse gas emissions

Notes on the graph -

2024/25 – SRBC adopted a 100% renewable energy tariff, so no Scope 2 emissions need to be reported        

Recalculations changed the base year following the creation of the leisure company (Leisure Ltd) and the addition of the four leisure centres to the carbon footprint reporting.

Greenhouse Gas Emissions for the Borough of South Ribble

Borough wide emission recording is based on nationally available data produced by the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero.

The graphs below show the reduction in emissions by sector from 2005 – 2023 and the latest available breakdown by sector for 2023 (the latest available data).  This breakdown shows that transport (37%), domestic (23%) and industry (13%) are the major sources of emissions in the Borough.  These areas are all addressed in the supporting Climate Action Plan.

2005-23-uk-local-authority-ghg-emissions.xlsx  

 LULUCF - Land use, land use change and forestry

Intensity measures

The Council’s and Borough’s emissions can be compared side by side if they are converted to intensity measures. The following table demonstrates a clear contrast between emissions generated by the Borough as a whole and those produced directly by the Council. It highlights that overall emission levels across South Ribble significantly exceed those arising from the Council’s own operations, illustrating the need for Borough‑wide activity.