'The why' of Net Zero Carbon (NZC)
The National Church of England General Synod voted in February 2020 for the whole of the Church of England to achieve NZC by 2030. This ambitious target recognises that the global climate emergency is a crisis for God’s creation and a fundamental injustice.
What is the diocese of Chichester doing?
At its meeting in November 2023, the Chichester Diocesan Synod agreed to support the milestones within the National Route Map to NZC and seek to meet those as far as possible within the context of the our Diocese, and endorsed the Diocesan NZC Action Plan as a positive direction of travel.
Our Diocesan Synod recognizes that we have limited resources and so the additional roles we have recruited to support our NZC work have been funded through a specific NZC Capacity Building Grant from the National Church office.
Our diocesan approach broadly follows the approach in the National Route Map and over the next two year will involve:
Parishes
- Build understanding of our buildings and their carbon emissions so that the steps we take to reduce emissions are based on good data and are the most cost effective.
- Build momentum in our NZC journey by starting to take small low-cost steps to reduce emissions.
- Take advantage of resources provided by the National Church and other donors to create ‘parish demonstrator projects’, gathering and applying learning from these in coming years.
- Develop our understanding of funding opportunities and how parishes can access them.
- Current Funding Opportunities for Parishes (LINK that leads to another page – see below)
- NZC Learning Resources for Parishes (LINK that leads to another page – see below)
Parsonages
- Build our data (through quinquennial inspections, EPC and other tools) to inform our ongoing maintenance work so it reduces energy bills and carbon emissions whenever practically possible.
- With funding from the National Church and/or other sources, implement ‘demonstrator projects’, gathering and applying learning from these in coming years.
Schools
Our Church of England schools account for around half of our total overall diocesan carbon emissions and so are a major focus of our NZC work
- With funds from the UK Governments Public Sector Decarbonization Scheme (PSDS) we are undertaking major decarbonization projects in three of our schools
- We will continue to look for other funding sources to enable us to undertake more detailed feasibility studies and implement further major decarbonisation capital works in schools.
Our Diocesan Office (Church House Hove)
We are beginning to work towards an Arocha Eco Office bronze award which will include work around understanding and reducing our work and office related carbon emissions.
What can you do as a parish?
- Get involved in the Arocha UK Eco-Church initiative
This initiative aims to help churches of all denominations care for creation as an integral part of loving our neighbours and following God faithfully in all aspects of church life:
- worship and teaching
- looking after church buildings
- engaging with the surrounding community
- engaging with global environmental issues
- personal lifestyles
- Complete your Energy Footprint Tool (EFT)
The Energy Footprint Tool allows churches around the country to enter their utility bills and find out their 'carbon footprint'. You are unlikely to be able to access grants for NZC-related work if you haven’t completed your EFT submission.
- Commission an Energy Audit (+)
A specialist auditor will help you understand more about your particular energy use and make recommendations specific to your church building and its usage patterns to help you progress to NZC. The audit is a potentially important steeping stone to accessing grant funding.
Contact our NZC Programme Manager for details of energy auditors recommended by the National Church NZC programme.
- Linking with others on a journey to NZC
We have set up a NZC ‘Community of Practice (CoP)’ so if you have questions or wish to share your experiences you can link with others in a similar position to you. We hope this will prove to be an ideal forum for encouragement, sharing and learning on all sorts of aspects such as technology, how to access technical advice, ideas of funding etc.
If you would like to join our NZC please complete THIS very short form (which should take less than 2 minutes).
Further insights and biblical perspectives on Climate Change
Tearfund has developed a series of nine short videos featuring Katharine Hayhoe, the internationally renowned Christian climate scientist. In each episode, she responds to climate questions from key church leaders and members. LINK