A city-wide partnership in Oxford is expanding to cover Oxfordshire - highlighting the growing ambition collaboration across the county to tackle carbon emissions.
Published: Friday, 21st March 2025
The Zero Carbon Oxford Partnership (ZCOP), which was first established by Oxford City Council in 2021, will be expanding to become the Zero Carbon Oxfordshire Partnership, now including Cherwell District Council.
Since its formation in 2021, ZCOP has been a successful in bringing together collaboration between Oxford’s large businesses and organisations across the city, working towards the ambition to achieving net zero as a city by 2040.
Councillor Tom Beckett, Portfolio Holder for Greener Communities, said: “Net zero is an opportunity to save energy, waste, and money for businesses and residents, but the challenge is complex, and so demands collaboration. Cherwell has made great progress on securing grants to make its leisure centres more efficient, has reduced emissions from its fleet, and through its local plan, is set to establish very high standards for developments, that will help achieve net zero.
"By collaborating with our neighbours and drawing on the skills and desire for action that exist across various sectors, we expect to be able to further reduce the district’s carbon emissions and help protect our area for the benefit of future generations.”
The partnership has generated over £1.2million in grant funding to deliver projects promoting sustainable travel, retrofitting, and industrial decarbonisation across Oxford.
Now, following the success of the partnership, the group will be expanding to tackle carbon emissions across Oxfordshire as a whole - and is seeking new partners interested in joining this effort.
Zero Carbon Oxfordshire Partnership
The new Zero Carbon Oxfordshire Partnership will consist of over 20 organisations from across Oxfordshire, bringing together a growing network of partners working towards the county becoming net zero as a whole by 2050.
The partnership - which will be interim chaired by Professor Nick Eyre - will allow large employers and organisations across Oxfordshire to collaborate to accelerate climate action across the county, harnessing skills and expertise across a range of industries, and working together to generate funding to accelerate local net zero projects.
Participating organisations include Oxford City Council, Oxfordshire County Council, Cherwell District Council, West Oxfordshire District Council, as well as Enterprise Oxfordshire (previously Oxfordshire Local Enterprise Partnership), Abingdon and Witney College, and Oxfordshire Greentech.
Together these organisations will work together towards the goal to achieve net zero across Oxfordshire by 2050, in addition to their own organisation or local decarbonisation targets.
This will be achieved through:
- Sprint (task and finish) and Working Groups: which will co-design and deliver projects to tackle climate challenges, and will facilitate low carbon development at local-scale
- Accessing grant funding: leveraging collective expertise, skills and roles locally to secure funding opportunities
- Free training and peer-to-peer learning: helping partners to increase impact by working and learning together and showcasing best practice
- Quarterly meetings and networking events: connecting a broad range of academic, technical experts and leaders
- Progress reporting: monitoring the progress against the targets and objectives
- Local & national advocacy: Collectively advocating for Oxfordshire on net zero topics and discussions
The first meeting of the new Zero Carbon Oxfordshire Partnership Steering Group, which will provide strategic direction to the Partnership’s activities, was held at Abingdon & Witney college on 12 March - formally launching the partnership.
For more information about the Zero Carbon Oxfordshire Partnership, visit: zerocarbonoxfordshire.org