ONE million tonnes of carbon emissions will need to be cut in Basingstoke if the council is to reach its climate emergency targets, a green campaigner has said. 

During a meeting of Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council's community environment and partnership committee on Wednesday, November 16, Cllr Haley Eauchus gave members an update on the council's climate plan.

She told the committee that she is confident the council will meet their climate emergency targets, with several public speakers disagreeing with her.

Cllr Eachus said: “This report represents the second annual update report on the Climate Change and Air Quality Strategy and sets out our approach to tackling the climate emergency which was declared back in 2019 and includes are ambitious objectives to become carbon neutral by 2025 and working towards a net zero borough by 2030.

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“It is making it clear that continuing to reduce council emissions is a priority for this council and achieving carbon neutrality is well within reach and we have already cut out net emissions by two-thirds since the declaration was made. We are keen to ensure that we take immediate action to account for current and historic emissions since the declaration of the climate emergency.”

As previously reported, council chiefs have come under fire for proposing to use land in the Basingstoke borough to tackle nitrate pollution and offset the impact of development in Andover. 

During a meeting of the Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council (BDBC) cabinet on October 11, the council suggested that in order to meet its climate emergency target offsetting will need to be used to reach carbon neutrality.

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Offsetting is defined as reductions in emissions in one place that can be used to compensate for emissions elsewhere. 

Green campaigner Martin Heath said: “This is not a strategy that will deliver carbon zero by 2030 and just to remind ourselves that would require a cut of one million tonnes and what we have before us today is a plan that will cut our emissions by just a few thousand tonnes."

He went on to say “we are going to need a bigger boat, this one is not bigger enough”.

Environmental protester Miranda Chubb agreed, she said “Basingstoke has a long way to go” and said there is no clear information on how the current strategy will meet those needs.