The West Midlands Regional Climate Change Action Plan (PDF, 838kb) outlines the targets that the West Midlands must meet to address climate change.
Ultimately, the Climate Change Act 2008 (PDF, 440kb) states that emissions must be cut by at least 80% by 2050 and at least 26% by 2020.
Further information on greenhouse gas emission reduction targets is contained in the document linked below.
The West Midlands Regional Observatory published a monitoring report (PDF, 966kb) on 27th March 2009 to show how the West Midlands is performing against the action plan. Pages 8-9 list the indicators used to monitor progress against the plan and section 4 reviews the West Midlands performance so far.
Our low carbon synthesis report (PDF, 358kb) published in May 2009 provides some context to this by ranking the West Midlands performance against other English regions for the indicators.
There is a whole suite of data available on regional energy statistics and CO2 emissions by consuming sector (XLS, 1.06mb) which provides insight into energy usage in the West Midlands.
In terms of consuming sectors (such as industrial and commercial, transport, and domestic), industrial and commercial CO2 emissions are the highest.
Further information on factors of climate change, such as energy consumption, is available from our research work on low carbon. Our State of the Region thematic dialogue on climate change will also set the scene for climate change in the West Midlands. This is due to be published in Autumn 2009.