Climate Emergency UK

The Action Scorecards: “perhaps the best reference point for funders” for council climate action.

Annie Pickering — Wed, 29 Jul 2026 08:13:04 +0000

This case study was originally published in July by Myfanwy at mySociety

Impatience Earth supports, challenges, and inspires philanthropic funders to make bolder decisions on the climate emergency.

In this guest post, Yasmin Ahammad, Impatience Earth’s co-CEO, tells us how the Council Climate Action Scorecards have informed the advice they give to grantmakers.

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As part of our work, we often do deep dives into areas of funding that we believe need more resourcing and attention.

In 2025, we wanted to understand the funding landscape for place-based resilience in the UK. Our brilliant Associate, Liz Gadd, did a rapid landscape review in early 2025, and included the Council Climate Action Scorecards — a joint project between Climate Emergency UK and mySociety — as a resource, noting that these were “perhaps the best reference point for funders” when understanding how well local authorities are doing on climate action in their areas.

This landscape review kicked off a new area of work for us around how we build intersectional climate resilience in the UK, and as we refine the strategy and start looking at specific geographies with and for funders, the Scorecards will be an important reference point.

I personally came across the Scorecards again sometime after their 2025 update. I remember getting so excited about how they could be used to pressure local authorities on their climate (in)action that I immediately sent a message to my local Friends of the Earth group, suggesting they use them to support their local campaigns. It turns out that Friends of the Earth were already on it, and were offering training to their members on how to use them.

Here is a specific example of how we’ve used Scorecards in our work with philanthropic funders: In the second half of 2025, we were commissioned by the Barnwood Trust to help them understand how climate change is affecting the communities they work with in Gloucestershire: people with mental health conditions, neurodivergent people and disabled people.

Liz Gadd led the research, alongside our Senior Research Officer, James Hibberd. Using the guiding questions from the Barnwood Trust as a basis for the research, what they found lent itself to two separate reports:

A national-level report that resulted in a published primer for funders on how climate change is already shaping the lives of people living with these conditions, and how their genuine inclusion in climate decision-making and action leads to much better results.
A regional-level report that builds on the findings of the national research, but looking at the particular climate impacts that Gloucester would face; what is happening in terms of existing action on climate and disability in the region; and our recommendations on moving forward with this work for the Barnwood Trust team.

It was when researching the regional context that we looked at the Council Climate Action Scorecards for the results of relevant councils within the county of Gloucestershire.

We included screenshots and links from the Scorecards website, highlighting where the County and District Councils were doing well, and what they could improve upon.

This was really helpful in terms of pulling together a comprehensive picture on what is happening around climate in the county: local council action could be assessed alongside voluntary sector action, how well resourced it all is, and how Barnwood Trust could do as a convenor and funder.

The Barnwood team have told us that the reports have given them the critical information they needed around the significance of the climate crisis in their region, and are currently working on adopting the recommendations so that climate change can be fully embedded in their work.

Many thanks to Yasmin for sharing her experience.

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Image: Lulu Black

Partnerships: The heart of our work

Isaac Beevor — Tue, 21 Jul 2026 16:22:06 +0000

At Climate Emergency UK (CE UK) partnerships have always been at the heart of our work. We are looking for more organisations who want to partner with us and support our work to make sure we are a sustainable organisation as we continue to support and encourage councils and communities to take climate action.

Scorecards

The Council Climate Scorecards is our foundational piece of work, created in partnership with mySociety. We have rated and assessed local climate plans and the action that authorities have taken to reduce emissions. It is incredible that since we have started the Scorecards we now have 40% of councils and hundreds of residents across the UK are using them.

The Scorecards were established through partnerships. To create the methodology we spoke to over 90 individuals and organisation to seek advice on specific questions and sections, with councillors and council officers consulted for every section, as well as wider consultations to pull together councils, experts and local climate campaigners. We have also had an Advisory Group, which represented the local climate sector, to provide detailed oversight of the Scorecards project and methodology.

And of course the Scorecards themselves are created in partnership as hundreds of volunteers from across the UK give up their time to assess publicly available information and process Freedom of Information requests.

Would your organisation be interested in sponsoring the Scorecards, or one of our 7 sections? If so, get in touch at declare[@]climateemergency.uk

Events

A key tenet of our partnership work is to bring people together and especially those that wouldn’t always mix. We host regular online training sessions, including our Scorecards in Action events and the Local Climate Academy, as well as in person conferences. We have held dozens of training sessions across the UK in partnership with Mothers CAN, South East Climate Action Alliance, U3A, Friends of the Earth Northern Ireland, Climate Cymru, the Women’s Institute and the Wildlife Trusts.

One of the favourite moments at our in-person conferences has the dedicated networking space we setup for local campaigners, sector experts, council officers and councillors. It is often one of the first times these groups have met in a non-combative setting, where people discuss how they can further climate action in the position they sit in.

Our Accelerating Climate Action conference (pictured below) was the first event where we had sponsors that supported the work – Unity Trust Bank and Bioregional. Lewis Knight from Bioregional said about our work together:

“We were delighted to support Climate Emergency UK at their Accelerating Local Climate Action conference. We share CE UK’s commitment to enabling the tools, resources and collaboration that empower local authorities and communities to accelerate climate action at pace and scale. The event was well organised, with the CE UK team constantly in touch – we left feeling energised from the diverse range of participants and speakers that came together to champion shared learning and best practice across the UK.”

If you are interested in working together on an event or sponsoring our Scorecards in Action training series then please get in touch at declare[@]climateemergency.uk

Campaigns

CE UK started out as a group of volunteers to track which councils had declared climate emergencies and encourage those that hadn’t yet, to do so. We supported the wider movement and worked with councillors and local campaign groups to make sure over 80% of councils have declared a climate emergency and have a climate action plan.

This spirit of partnership in campaigning was replicated in our latest campaign for councils to have a climate statutory duty. We worked in partnership with many different organisations including Wildlife and Countryside Link, UK100, Peers for the Planet, ADEPT, Healthy Air Coalition.

But it doesn’t stop there. We supported The Woodland Trust to compile which council had declared a nature emergency. Louise Wilkinson, Lead Policy Advocate for Nature Recovery from The Woodland Trust said:

“The team at Climate Emergency UK were excellent to work with and produced high quality research on time. Isaac and his colleagues were clear about the scope and methodology of the work and delivered the project exactly as agreed. They were communicative, listened to and took on board our project needs and were happy to answer our questions throughout the work. We highly recommend them.”

Got an idea of a campaign or project you think we could help with? Get in touch as we are always keen to work together to further local climate action.

What does effective transport action look like?

Isaac Beevor — Mon, 29 Jun 2026 12:37:32 +0000

At our latest Scorecards in Action event, three excellent speakers brought their answers from the frontline: Emma Parker, who helped set up the Frome Safer School Streets scheme from 2020 through to 2023, Cllr Gareth Epps, the Transport cabinet member for Oxfordshire County Council and Alice Roberts Campaigns Director at CPRE London, which run the Healthy Streets Scorecard. Here is what we learned:

Transport action isn’t just for cities

School streets, where roads are closed outside schools during the opening and closing times, have become common in cities around the world. However, this is starting to change as more and more of the UK’s towns are introducing similar schemes. Frome is a small market town in rural Somerset and it was encouraging to hear that these schemes have been implemented outside of areas in the London core. In fact Frome has the same number of school streets as Newcastle.

Another first is the UK’s zero emission zone, and first (temporary) city centre congestion charge outside of London. To all who understand the political challenges of introducing anti-traffic measures, these are seismic changes that have been introduced by Oxfordshire County Council.

Oxfordshire can also boast one of the largest electric bus fleets, secured with funding through the ZEBRA grant and dozens of school streets and low-traffic neighbourhoods have been introduced, with none repealed. More school streets and the rural equivalent of the low traffic neighbourhood (LTNs), the “quiet lanes” are planned, with East Oxford becoming a mini-Holland scheme, turning the area into a Dutch-style cycling and walking haven.

But what of the results? The zero emission zone has achieved up to an 18% reduction in nitrogen dioxide, while noise and air pollution have dropped across the city due to the introduction of electric buses. This demonstrates real leadership achieves real results.

Don’t fear the backlash

All the speakers spoke of the fact that changes proposed have led to backlash in the community. Transport researchers have even coined the term the “hill of hysteria” to describe the predictable surge of public outrage and anxiety that occurs when cities propose or implement major transport changes. This isn’t to dismiss those that have objections, and it is important that residents’ views are taken into account as local knowledge often makes schemes better.

But this shouldn’t take away from the support that such schemes engender. Frome’s school surveys show a significant increase in support for the scheme from parents/guardians and school staff from 53% to 71% (although support varies from school to school). This shows a clear majority in support. Oxfordshire CC ran communications to outline the benefits of the schemes and the objectives the council were trying to achieve – they even delivered 180,000 leaflets to outline the congestion charge changes.

While speakers talked about the challenges raised from local reactions, these are informed by the national conversation on Transport initiatives. We know that the national conversation is toxic around transport decarbonisation.

Does the toxic conversation breakthrough into voting patterns? Oxfordshire Lib Dems and Greens had record results in the 2025 local elections. Parties that supported the 20mph pledge in Wales won the majority of seats and with one exception, every Mayor (or the same party) that introduced a clean air zone has stayed in power. The exception is in the West Midlands – changing leadership from Andy Street (Conservative) to Richard Parker (Labour), with both campaigning on the importance of climate and clean air initiatives. This would suggest that the backlash on transport initiatives have often failed to cut through electorally.

Parking is the “most effective tool” to reduce carbon emissions and pollution – and it’s free

Councils have often under utilised their powers around parking. It is not just about the car parks they own and manage (just as Oxfordshire CC ended councillor access to free parking at County Hall). Alice, spoke about the planning powers councils have to restrict new parking in new developments, with parking minimums leading to suburban sprawl and to encourage spaces for car clubs.

But that is not all councils can reallocate their kerbside space. Councils can encourage businesses to use less parking, through a Workplace Parking Levy, and by the extension of resident parking permits, stopping the free subsidy to park in front of your house. Alice also pointed out that any surplus from parking has to be spent on sustainable transport initiatives.

And finally we can repurpose car parks in our towns to be utilised for housing, parks and so much more with a 2020 study demonstrating that currently 20,000 hectares of our urban space is taken up by car parks – enough space for 2.1 million homes. A great example of this is Luton, which has recently replaced a number of town centre car parks with new housing and business space.

There are a “lot of positives”

The final reflection is that despite the challenges Emma stated “there are lots of positives that come out of this as well.” The conversation around street space, increasing active travel and even the transition to electric vehicles can be difficult but it is clear that schemes did receive significant local support and deliver cleaner air, improve health outcomes for residents and reduce emissions.

Hart District: The Scorecards “create a level of accountability across the whole organisation to play their part”

Annie Pickering — Wed, 22 Apr 2026 15:25:09 +0000

This case study was originally published in April 2026 by Myfanwy at mySociety

Liz Vango-Smith is Sustainability and Climate Change Officer at Hart District Council, where she manages the climate change programme, helping to meet their carbon reduction targets both internally, and across the district. She recently took the time to speak to us about the part that the Council Climate Action Scorecards play in her work.

Liz explained how the Scorecards are part of a wider push toward staff engagement in climate action, right across the council: “We’ve been integrating climate messaging into team briefings, running service area climate workshops, and offering carbon literacy training.

“And the Scorecards have also informed discussions at the Officers’ Working Group, a cross-council meeting with representatives from across the different service areas, including procurement, estate management, planning, waste services, street care and grounds maintenance, as well as community engagement and the natural environment.

“The combination of all of these things has helped more officers recognise they have direct roles in supporting delivery of our climate action plan.”

So where, specifically, have the Scorecards helped? “We’ve used them to highlight areas where we could improve our scores, and to focus climate action where it may not be a current focus. The published scores help provide a little more weighting to encouraging collaborative action with colleagues, as they create a level of accountability across the whole organisation to play their part.

“Of course, we already monitor and report climate action, but the specific details in the scoring have helped us identify additional ways in which we can measure progress.”

Liz says that the Scorecards have helped them focus on messaging, as well: “They’re a helpful tool to provide confidence to stakeholders that we’re making meaningful progress in taking climate action — and we’ve also used them to help improve the way we inform the public about our progress, as it highlighted that perhaps we don’t always promote some of the good work we do.

“So we’ve now included reference to the Scorecards on the council’s website, to show the public we are improving our scores and to encourage them to find out more.”
Finally, there’s one other big, positive change where the Scorecards played a part:

“They brought the conversation back to our energy supply, and we realised we still didn’t have a 100% renewable tariff. We took action and now we do. Not only that, but a ‘deep green’ tariff that directly supports new, sustainable generation.”

Many thanks to Liz for sharing the impacts that the Scorecards have had on Hart Council and beyond. The Scorecards are a joint project between Climate Emergency UK and mySociety.

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Image: Mr Ignavy (CC by/sa-2.0)

Same mission. Better logo.

Don von Rohland — Tue, 07 Apr 2026 09:23:09 +0000

Climate Emergency UK has a new look. Since we started in 2019 as a volunteer group, we’ve grown into an established organisation producing the only comprehensive assessment of local climate action across all UK councils. Our new logo reflects that journey — and what we do. The hourglass represents the urgency of the climate emergency and the Scorecards data itself, with each bar reflecting the differing levels of climate action across councils. We’re still the same organisation: independent, evidence-based, challenging and collaborative among councils and community groups. Now, we just look the part.

How to score 100%: 3 actions councils can take on building decarbonisation

Annie Pickering — Fri, 27 Mar 2026 10:50:51 +0000

How did Greater Manchester Combined Authority score 100% in the Buildings, Heating and Green Skills sections of the Council Climate Action Scorecards? And how can other councils tackle one of their biggest sources of carbon emissions and poor health outcomes, building decarbonisation?

This is what our latest Scorecards in Action: Buildings & Heating explored, attended by council representatives from Milton Keynes, Edinburgh and Hinckley and Bosworth. Here are three actions, drawn from best practices shared on the day on how councils can effectively decarbonise the Buildings & Heating across their community.

1. Run group switching and installation schemes with residents

George Frost from Ichoosr opened the session with examples of the impact councils can have by working with residents to encourage large-scale switching to renewable energy suppliers, solar panel or heat pump installations. Since their pilot Solar Together scheme in Norwich in 2015, now in its ninth year in that area, iChoosr have worked with over 200 councils across the UK.

George told us also about their first mass-installation heat pump scheme in Essex, which resulted in 10% of residents who registered actually installing a heat-pump, 99 more homes with a heat-pump, saving money and carbon emissions for these homes.

2. Develop a retrofit strategy that’s built from the ground up

Not all councils are ready to roll-out mass installation projects. MCS Foundation’s Andrew Rice emphasised the need for a considered retrofit strategy from councils, written with those working on retrofit day by day, rather than a top-down approach: The Local Area Retrofit Accelerator methodology.

This approach was adopted by Surrey County Council, which has led to accelerated retrofit delivery locally. Surrey now has a Surrey Green Construction Advisory Panel – of which Surrey County Council is a member – to promote, enhance and develop sustainable training and education opportunities for the housing and construction industries. MCS Foundation noted that where councils have engaged with both the Scorecards process and the LARA methodology, delivery has measurably improved.

3. Take a systemic, partnership-based approach

Finally, we heard from the Greater Manchester Combined Authority, the only local authority to achieve 100% in any Action Scorecard section. With a target for all homes to be EPC C by 2032, there are over 800,000 properties that need improvements. Robyn from GMCA shared a huge number of projects they are part of to work towards this goal, including their Good Landlord Charter, Powering Our Schools and the Energy Innovation Agency.

When asked why she thought GMCA was doing so much on building decarbonisation compared to other Mayoral Authorities, Robyn identified three reasons. First, Mayor Andy Burnham has prioritised and championed this work, helping to secure funding and build sector and resident support. Second, strong links with the local universities, such as the Energy Innovation Agency have increased the Mayoral Authority’ s capacity and expertise. Third, GMCA has taken a systemic approach, working across departments and with a wide range of partners to maintain focus and maximise impact.

These three speakers shared tangible examples of effective work councils can do to decarbonise. From cutting residents’ energy bills with Solar Together, creating retrofit strategies that can actually be implemented with MCS Foundation and GMCA working academic and business partners to deliver home retrofit, there’s lots to learn from here.

We were also pleased to share at the session that our recent research found a positive link between councils’ engagement with CE UK, through sessions like this and the Action Scorecards process itself- and councils’ Action Scorecards results. We hope this peer-learning from our events will translate into tangible actions that we can recognise in the 2027 Action Scorecards – watch this space!

Image credit: 10:10 / Creative Commons

District Councils – Update on the 2027 Scorecards marking

Isaac Beevor — Wed, 25 Mar 2026 12:14:48 +0000

We have taken the difficult decision to not assess all district councils in the 2027 Scorecards. We have made this decision because local government reorganisation will see districts transitioning to new authorities from May 2027 onwards, soon after the publication of the 2027 Scorecards, and due to expected capacity constraints for Climate Emergency UK in the 2026/27 financial year.

We have had feedback from the council sector that this is an understandable position to take, especially given the strain on local authorities going through reorganisation.

We know there have been district councils that have been pioneers in taking climate action – from policies to create zero emission homes, leading on retrofit and supporting nature recovery. District councils leave a legacy of climate action that needs to be celebrated, and embedded in the new authorities that are created.

Therefore, we have decided to assess one district council from each county area, alongside marking all county councils in the 2027 Action Scorecards. This will be either the top scoring or most improved district council from the 2025 Scorecards.

We believe this will celebrate the legacy of district councils, and encourage the embedding of best practice climate action in the new authorities. We are currently working out the format of how we will share these assessments but we can confirm the councils we will be assessing are listed below.

For those councils not selected, there will be the option to be assessed in the Scorecards for a fee of £675. This will include the full assessment of the Scorecards process, as well as receiving a copy of the council data in spreadsheet format, which will also include justifications for the marking.

The deadline to request to be involved in the Scorecards is 23rd of April. Any council interested should get in contact with the CE UK team at declare@climateemergency.uk

District councils to be assessed in the 2027 Scorecards

Council	County area	2025 Score	Top scorer/Most improved
Lancaster City Council	Lancashire	69%	Top scorer
Winchester City Council	Hampshire	68%	Top scorer and most improved
Oxford City Council	Oxfordshire	63%	Top scorer
Cheltenham Borough Council	Gloucestershire	56%	Top scorer and most improved
Wealden District Council	East Sussex	55%	Top scorer
Cambridge City Council	Cambridgeshire	54%	Top scorer
Warwick District Council	Warwickshire	54%	Top scorer
Mid Sussex District Council	West Sussex	52%	Top scorer
North Kesteven District Council	Lincolnshire	51%	Top scorer
Mid Suffolk District Council	Suffolk	48%	Top scorer and most improved
Uttlesford District Council	Essex	48%	Top scorer and most improved
Norwich City Council	Norfolk	47%	Top scorer
Maidstone Borough Council	Kent	45%	Top scorer
St Albans City & District Council	Hertfordshire	45%	Top scorer
Worcester City Council	Worcestershire	45%	Top scorer
Mid Devon District Council	Devon	44%	Most improved
Charnwood Borough Council	Leicestershire	41%	Most improved
Chesterfield Borough Council	Derbyshire	39%	Top scorer
Broxtowe Borough Council	Nottinghamshire	34%	Most improved
Staffordshire Moorlands District Council	Staffordshire	33%	Most improved

Reflections on the Accelerating Local Climate Action conference and report launch

Isaac Beevor — Tue, 24 Mar 2026 17:15:15 +0000

On a beautifully sunny Wednesday, 18th of March, Climate Emergency UK held our in-person conference for the launch of the “Accelerating Local Climate Action” report (you can read the report here). This research looked at what were the key factors that enabled councils to achieve higher scores in the 2025 Scorecards.

This was a record in-person event for Climate Emergency UK (CE UK) with over 80 attendees from 66 different organisations – from councillors, climate officers, campaigners and sector representatives. Those attending came from as far afield as Cumbria, or a short walk away in Islington.

Our day started with the report launch from Dr Liam Clegg, University of York and co-author of the report, who laid out the key aspects that the research demonstrated:

Money matters: Every £200 per capita increase in a council’s spending power is associated with a 0.8 percentage point improvement in its Scorecard performance.
Institutions and Engagement matter: A Climate Change portfolio holder increases a councils’ Scorecards result of around 5.3 percentage points. Councils’ engagement with CE UK and the Scorecards increases their score by 4.1 percentage points.
Public pressure matters: Increase in public support for net zero has a higher impact than spending power. A 1 percentage point increase in public support for Net Zero is linked to a 1.9 percentage point improvement in a council’s Scorecard performance.

As Dr Clegg stated, “our report shows that council resourcing matters. Overall, councils with higher spending power display stronger climate performance. This insight bolsters calls to introduce a statutory duty to act on climate change alongside targeted government financing to support action”.

Following this, there was a wide variety of questions from the floor, discussing councils’ perception of the support for net zero locally, and other ideas for how the Scorecards data could be analysed to support the calls for climate action as a statutory duty.

“Great enthusiasm from everywhere – Chair, Panel, participants. I learnt a lot and was inspired to know more.”

We then moved into our breakout sessions, covering “Money Matters: How councils continue to take climate action despite economic challenges” and “Public Pressure: How campaigners have won?”

Joshua Meek from Unity Trust Bank chaired this panel which featured Cllr Katharine Dunne (Hounslow), Maizy McCann (Cheltenham) and Rhianna Stephenson (City of Lincoln). Some highlights include the impact of the Local Climate Bond in Hounslow, the “award winning spreadsheet” from Cheltenham, otherwise named the Climate Impact Assessment, which has helped embed climate action through every team in the council, and Lincolnshire Citywide Climate Partnership to share resources and skills. We also had the announcement that South Norfolk District Council are bringing their operational net zero target forward (to 2028 from 2030) because they think they will achieve this. All of these are strong examples of councils taking effective climate action.

In the other session we heard from Christine Holloway (Winchester Action on Climate Crisis), Ted Maxwell (Save our Safer Streets), Victoria Marsom (Friends of the Earth). Christine talked about WinACC’s long relationship with the council, which has seen multiple administrations (of different politics) take climate action as well as the support they have gathered for solar farms in the area (read more here). Ted shared how a small but resourceful team of volunteers led a successful campaign to save the school streets in Tower Hamlets, despite a fiercely oppositional Mayor, and organising the community response with petitions, action days, letter writing and even taking on a legal challenge – which they won. Finally, Victoria explained the influential role Mayors play and how FoE empowered local campaigners to demand ambitious mayoral policy across the region, making sure everyone is represented. The small discussion circles worked really well, with participants appreciating the chance to interact directly with speakers.

“I liked how interactive it was and that there weren’t too many long presentations.“

We had a wonderful Peer Networking session focusing on how people can work together to see more local climate action and how the biggest barriers to climate action can be overcome. Networking continued over lunch – a great vegetarian/vegan lunch supplied by Lift Islington (the spicy bean wrap was particularly good).

To end, we had our final panel with Mike Hakata (former climate cabinet lead at Haringey), Jamie Clarke (Engaging Climate), Ruby Hornsby (Hope for the Future), David Evans (Birmingham City Council) talking about how councils can encourage wider support for climate action from residents. Jamie advocated for residents and councils to keep talking about net zero and climate change in the face of some parties wanting to scrap it, otherwise we can’t change perceptions and conversations about something people don’t know about. Ruby added the importance of fostering trust, ownership and developing the long term buy-in for climate policy by working with community and underrepresented groups. David added to this, sharing the Birmingham Climate Change Engagement Framework that aims to keep climate comms “Local, Accessible, Honest and Human” and a wider discussion was had about how engagement goes both ways from residents and councils and the support available for both groups here.

Thank you to all the speakers – feedback has highlighted that participants really valued the varied range of perspectives and insights, and thank you to all the attendees whose enthusiasm and support for local climate action was clear to see.

We would also like to thank our headline sponsor Unity Trust Bank and partner sponsor Bioregional for their support for the conference as well.

At CE UK we have always sought to bring people together to accelerate local climate action. We see ourselves as working with and across councils, local residents and the sector to further local climate action. Alongside the Scorecards, the only UK wide assessment of council climate action, this is the value we believe we bring to the local climate sector.

Want to get more involved? Sign up to the June Local Climate Academy for Council Officers, and volunteer with us to create the 2027 Scorecards.

Press Release: Councils with higher spending power do better on climate action #2

Annie Pickering — Wed, 18 Mar 2026 07:28:31 +0000

For immediate release: 18th March 2026

New research shows link between spending power and improved climate action from councils
Every £200 per capita increase in budget provides a 0.8% increase in climate performance
Public engagement has a bigger impact than spending power on climate action success from councils

Councils with higher spending power do better on climate action

New analysis, published today, shows that English councils with higher spending power score higher in Climate Emergency UK’s public assessment of local councils’ climate action, the Council Climate Action Scorecards.

At a time when nearly 40% of English councils say they will require financial bailouts in the coming years, the report concludes that climate action from councils may be under threat, especially as it is not currently a statutory duty for English councils.

Working with academics from the University of York and Nottingham Trent University, Climate Emergency UK (CE UK) have analysed the results of the 2025 Council Climate Action Scorecards, exploring links between councils in England’s spending power per capita, and factors including: the success of their climate action; and the amount of public engagement around it.

Amongst single-tier and county councils in England, for every £200 per capita increase in a council’s spending power, the academics found a 0.8% improvement in their Action Scorecard performance.

Dr Liam Clegg, Senior Lecturer at the University of York, who conducted the data analysis, said, “Our report shows that council resourcing matters. Overall, councils with higher spending power display stronger climate performance. This insight bolsters calls to introduce a statutory duty to act on climate change alongside targeted government financing to support action”.

Isaac Beevor, Partnerships Director at CE UK, added that if climate action were a statutory duty for councils, as in Scotland, there would be corresponding funding and guidance for English councils from the UK government.

“Following work from us and others across the sector, the LGA now has a formal position in favour of a statutory duty for climate action for English councils. This is huge, and with councils’ budgets facing bleak futures and recent winter flooding affecting English residents, powers and funding to adapt and mitigate against the changing climate have never been more needed”.

The report also found that a one percentage point increase in public support for climate action is linked to a 1.9 percentage point improvement in a council’s Scorecard performance.

Peter Eckersley, Associate Professor at Nottingham Trent University, said, “CE UK’s Climate Scorecards provide the most comprehensive independent assessment of local climate action in the UK. They help us to track how the country as a whole is progressing, and highlight what ministers and councils could do to achieve net zero more quickly and more effectively.

“Our analysis emphasises that councils perform better where local people are more in favour of net zero policies. This suggests that governments at all levels need to maintain support for climate action to keep the momentum going, particularly in a context of growing skepticism around net zero.”

Among residents, 64% of the UK population still want to see the government’s target for net zero to be 2050, despite two-thirds of local authorities in England not being confident they will meet their own local net-zero targets by 2050.

END

Contact press@climateemergency.uk or Annieat Climate Emergency UK on 07934486877 for more information

Notes for Editors

You will be able to see a copy of the report from 18th March on this link.
The report analyses the 2025 Council Climate Action Scorecards results which can be found here
The Scorecards is a project of Climate Emergency UK, in partnership with mySociety
The report was sponsored by Unity Trust Bank
Images below

Background information

Climate Emergency UK is a not-for-profit community interest company which has been working with councils and residents since 2019 to share best practice about what councils can do to tackle the climate and ecological emergency and to encourage effective action.
Last year, Climate Emergency UK published the 2025 Council Climate Action Scorecards in June which was an assessment of councils’ action plans they’ve taken towards net zero. This is the first time CE UK were able to compare council climate action against 2023 Action Scorecards, with the average score being 38%, only 6 percentage points higher than 2023
The report “Accelerating Local Climate Action” was commissioned by Climate Emergency UK (CE UK). The main analysis of the scorecards data was conducted by Dr Liam Clegg (University of York) and Dr Peter Eckersley (Nottingham Trent University).
The underlying scorecard data is available from CE UK and further details of the analysis are available on request.

Press Release: Councils with higher spending power do better on climate action

Annie Pickering — Wed, 18 Mar 2026 06:00:00 +0000

For immediate release: 18th March 2026

New research shows link between spending power and improved climate action from councils
Every £200 per capita increase in budget provides a 0.8% increase in climate performance
Public engagement has a bigger impact than spending power on climate action success from councils

Councils with higher spending power do better on climate action

The report also found that a one percentage point increase in public support for climate action is linked to a 1.9 percentage point improvement in a council’s Scorecard performance.

END

Contact press@climateemergency.uk or Annie at Climate Emergency UK on 07934486877 for more information

Notes for Editors

You will be able to see a copy of the report from 18th March on this link.
The report analyses the 2025 Council Climate Action Scorecards results which can be found here
The Scorecards is a project of Climate Emergency UK, in partnership with mySociety
The report was sponsored by Unity Trust Bank
Images below

Background information

Climate Emergency UK is a not-for-profit community interest company which has been working with councils and residents since 2019 to share best practice about what councils can do to tackle the climate and ecological emergency and to encourage effective action.
Last year, Climate Emergency UK published the 2025 Council Climate Action Scorecards in June which was an assessment of councils’ action plans they’ve taken towards net zero. This is the first time CE UK were able to compare council climate action against 2023 Action Scorecards, with the average score being 38%, only 6 percentage points higher than 2023
The report “Accelerating Local Climate Action” was commissioned by Climate Emergency UK (CE UK). The main analysis of the scorecards data was conducted by Dr Liam Clegg (University of York) and Dr Peter Eckersley (Nottingham Trent University).
The underlying scorecard data is available from CE UK and further details of the analysis are available on request.