Net zero reporting for the City of Southampton using data analytics

The Challenge

Cities are responsible for approximately 75% of CO2 emissions, so they are decisive in reaching the UK’s 2050 net zero target — but a city cannot manage what it cannot measure. Southampton faces specific challenges and opportunities on its pathway to net zero, and the barriers that matter most are non-technical and systemic: fragmented decision-making across government, citizens, businesses and investors, and no coherent, structured way to report progress and weight priorities at city scale. Southampton City Council needed a plan grounded in evidence, not aspiration.

The Solution

In this two-phase engagement, NquiringMinds partnered with Southampton City Council and the University of Southampton’s Energy and Climate Change Division (ECCD). NQM developed a Net Zero reporting tool for Southampton (demo at netzero-soton.nqminds.com), supporting a combined techno-economic methodology and stakeholder engagement designed to identify, rate and rank the non-technical systemic barriers on the city’s pathway to net zero (UK target 2050 or earlier).

Outcomes

ECCD hosted a hybrid workshop with local stakeholders — including the Southampton Energy Partnership, the city’s Climate Commission and the Solent Cluster — and ran an online survey to rate, rank and benchmark barrier dependencies and importance. The outputs — the reporting tool plus the weighted barrier analysis — support a coherently structured net zero Plan for the city, delivered with high-level buy-in from the local authority and stakeholders.