Environment and Climate Change

Somerset’s councils have made working together on environment policies a priority, the existing councils approved a nationally-acclaimed joint Climate Emergency Strategy in 2021, because climate change is a real threat to the county and effecting change in a geographically spread rural area is a very different proposition to city-based solutions. Much of the coast in the county is at risk from rising sea levels while the dramatic flooding of the Somerset Levels and Moors in 2014 left some communities cut off for weeks and made headlines around the globe.

Since then, the county has delivered an innovative road-raising engineering scheme and has an ambitious £100m project to build a flood barrier across the River Parrett at Bridgwater, which will be one of Britain’s largest flood defences once complete.

Pioneering Partnerships

Somerset is an innovator in creating successful partnerships to protect and enhance our environment and to fight climate change.

We provide household waste and recycling services for Somerset’s 560,000 residents. This includes collections (over 20 million a year), 16 recycling sites and waste disposal delivered by contractors.

Our innovative Recycle More campaign continues to raise recycling rates in the county and has just been shortlisted for national awards.

SRA was launched in 2015 following the devastating floods in the county, operating as a pioneering partnership of local Flood Risk management authorities.