Oxford net zero carbon emission by 2050 is achievable - opinion

The impacts of climate breakdown are happening right here, right now.

We must do something about it and we can with the confidence that Oxford fired the starting gun years ago and is already out of the blocks in the race to be Zero Carbon.

The UK is the first major economy in the world to pass laws to end its contribution to global warming by 2050, thanks to grassroots campaigning.

Oxford isn’t starting from scratch. The foundations for a Carbon Free Oxford have been laid by people, groups, and the council just getting on with it over many years.

With the Council responsible for just 1 per cent of the city’s carbon emissions, we’ve joined up with those who make up the remaining 99 per cent.

The Council coordinates and funds Low Carbon Oxford, a network of more than 40 organisations responsible for the majority of emissions. Connections made through that network sparked the story of how the MINI Plant hosts one of the UK’s largest roof mounted solar panel installations, generating enough electricity to power the equivalent of 850 households since 2014.

From 2016 to 2019, there has been a 24 per cent reduction in Carbon Dioxide emissions and a 56 per cent rise in renewable electricity generated within Oxford. Getting on with it makes a difference. So many people have shown the sheer bloody-minded commitment that was desperately needed to make possible the solar panels, the electric vehicles, and the smart grids.

These common-sense changes are already part of our way of life. And, just as campaigners challenge politicians to do better, these environmentalists provide MPs with the essential evidence that we can, in fact, do better.

The country is building on a record of some success, reducing emissions by 42 per cent while reportedly growing the economy by 72 per cent, largely as a result of the rise of renewable energy.

It’s a source of pride that the targets of the last Labour Government’s Climate Change Act delivered certainty for businesses, so that they could innovate and invest, and accelerate growth in renewable energy. The lesson from Labour’s 2008 law is simple: as long as targets are backed by policy and funding, and councils have a role, British know-how will create the industries and jobs that are needed.

By standing at the forefront of the race for investment in clean industries, Oxford stands to benefit. We have world class universities, a tradition of engineering, and more than a century of car-making at what is now BMW’s Mini plant in Cowley, where an electric Mini enters production this year.

The author, Tom Hayes (right) with Mayor Colin Cook and a Mini

Oxford is now home to two investments totalling £81m—the Energy Superb which will include giant batteries to balance renewable community energy on the grid, and Project LEO, which will create an electricity grid to balance local demand with local supply. The eyes of the world are on Oxford because we’re pioneering technologies which could be put in place worldwide.

Oxford needs a technological boom to decarbonise every sector. But any boom and growth has to be balanced and fair. What’s the point of averting runaway climate breakdown if the growth that saves the environment widens the gulf between the well-off and those already left behind?

Oxford is an unequal city beset by unaffordable housing in which only the wealthy can afford to buy. Many of our nurses and police officers are squeezed out of the city, forced to commute in and out of Oxford. Our housing crisis congests our roads, fuelling our climate emergency, showing that climate action is also action against injustice.

Precisely because people have quietly been getting on with decarbonising our energy and innovating zero-carbon transportation, we can go further with the Council’s installation of hundreds of electric vehicle chargers and Zero Emission Zone.

Oxford’s Citizens Assembly will support the Council in its decisions around how to get to Zero Carbon by 2030 if not sooner.

Fifty years ago, man touched down on the moon. The world has just been reminded of what we’re capable of when we focus on one big goal.

It’s not enough to have a reinvigorated focus on our planet without more action. With better support, we can achieve the goal of a Carbon Free Oxford and a future worth fighting for.

Tom Hayes is Oxford City Council Cabinet Member for Zero Carbon Oxford