General Synod voted in February 2020 for the whole of the Church of England to achieve net zero carbon by 2030.  The vote recognised that the global climate emergency is a crisis for God’s creation and a fundamental injustice.

The Synod asked for a plan to be made, setting out how to get to net zero carbon. That plan of action, called the Routemap, was approved by General Synod in July 2022 in a Motion that asked for the Routemap to be endorsed, requested every Diocesan Synod to debate the Routemap as it applies to them, requested high energy users within the Church to draw up a programme of action based on the Routemap, and called for progress reports to Synod every three years.

The Routemap was written by the Net Zero Carbon sub-committee of the national Environmental Working Group.  It went to consultation from October 2021 to February 2022 and the responses received shaped this final version.