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Canterbury City Council

Declarations & pledges

Climate emergency declaration

This council declared a climate emergency on July 18, 2019.

Council only pledge for 2030

“The Council commits to achieving: Net zero emissions by 2030 from the council’s operations and assets.”

Whole area pledge for 2050

“The Council commits to achieving: Net zero emissions by 2050 across the full range of activities needed to support the council’s work.”

Climate documents

Last update: March 16, 2022
Canterbury City Council Climate Change Action Plan 2020–2030 Final For Adoption 1.7

Action Plan · PDF · ·

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Climate Plan Scorecard

This council’s climate plans as of 20th September 2021 were assessed and scored by trained Climate Emergency UK volunteers, as part of the Council Climate Plan Scorecards project.

Show the full Scorecard Read more about the scoring process

Canterbury City Council was a top performer amongst district councils, in the Commitment and integration section.

SectionCanterbury City CouncilAverage district council
Total score60%43%
Section 1 Governance, development and funding
12/21
9.4/21
Section 2 Mitigation and adaptation
11/18
8.1/18
Section 3 · Top performer Commitment and integration
7/7
3.8/7
Section 4 Community, engagement and communications
4/9
4.7/9
Section 5 Measuring and setting emissions targets
3/5
2.6/5
Section 6 Co-benefits
4/4
1.9/4
Section 7 Diversity and inclusion
1/5
0.5/5
Section 8 Education, skills and training
2/5
1.5/5
Section 9 Ecological emergency
3/4
1.8/4

Emissions data

571.7 ktCO2

Total 2019 emissions

3.5 tCO2

per person

1.8 ktCO2

per km2

10%

Commercial

37%

Domestic

8%

Industry

6%

Public Sector

39%

Transport

Data from the Department of Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy “subset dataset”, representing carbon dioxide emissions within the scope of influence of local authorities.

These councils are the most similar to Canterbury City Council in terms of emissions profile, deprivation, rural/urban population density, and geographical nearness. Read more about how we calculate this.

Council nameSimilarityHas planCarbon Neutral byDeclared emergency
Kent County Council85%Yes2030May 23, 2019
Milton Keynes85%Yes2030Jan. 23, 2019
Essex County Council85%No2030No
Maidstone Borough Council84%No2030April 10, 2019
Colchester Borough Council84%Yes2030July 17, 2019
Welwyn Hatfield Council83%Yes2030June 19, 2019
Dacorum Council82%Yes2050July 17, 2019
Hertfordshire County Council82%Yes2030July 16, 2019
East Sussex County Council82%Yes2050Oct. 15, 2019
London Borough of Bexley81%NoNo targetNo

These councils are the most similar to Canterbury City Council in terms of their emissions profile, based on the latest data from the Department of Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy. Read more about how we calculate this.

Council nameSimilarityHas planCarbon Neutral byDeclared emergency
City of York Council91%No2030March 11, 2019
Milton Keynes90%Yes2030Jan. 23, 2019
Salford City Council90%No2038July 17, 2019
Basildon Borough Council89%Yes2030No
Swindon Borough Council89%Yes2030No
Bath and North East Somerset Council89%Yes2030March 14, 2019
West of England Combined Authority89%Yes2030July 1, 2019
Greater Manchester Combined Authority88%No2038July 26, 2019
Bracknell Forest Council88%Yes2050No
Derby City Council88%No2050May 23, 2019

These councils grographically border or overlap with Canterbury City Council. Read more about how we calculate this.

Council nameSimilarityHas planCarbon Neutral byDeclared emergency
Dover District Council97%Yes2030Nov. 4, 2019
Thanet District Council97%Yes2030July 11, 2019
Folkestone and Hythe District Council97%Yes2030July 24, 2019
Swale Borough Council96%Yes2025June 26, 2019
Ashford Borough Council96%Yes2030No

These councils are the most similar to Canterbury City Council in terms of the proportion of their population living in high deprivation, medium deprivation, and low deprivation neighbourhoods. Read more about how we calculate this.

Council nameSimilarityHas planCarbon Neutral byDeclared emergency
West Northamptonshire Council96%NoNo targetNo
Cheshire West and Chester Council96%Yes2030May 21, 2019
Leicestershire County Council95%No2030May 15, 2019
Swindon Borough Council95%Yes2030No
Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council94%Yes2030Oct. 8, 2019
Milton Keynes94%Yes2030Jan. 23, 2019
Chorley Council93%No2030Nov. 19, 2019
Vale of Glamorgan Council93%Yes2030July 29, 2019
Trafford Metropolitan Borough Council93%Yes2038Nov. 28, 2018
Oxford City Council92%Yes2030Jan. 28, 2019

These councils are the most similar to Canterbury City Council in terms of the proportion of their population living in urban, rural, and highly rural neighbourhoods. Read more about how we calculate this.

Council nameSimilarityHas planCarbon Neutral byDeclared emergency
Hertfordshire County Council99%Yes2030July 16, 2019
Charnwood Borough Council98%Yes2030No
North Lanarkshire Council97%Yes2030June 20, 2019
Darlington Borough Council97%Yes2050July 18, 2019
Renfrewshire Council97%No2030June 27, 2019
Doncaster Metropolitan Borough Council97%No2040Sept. 19, 2019
Chelmsford City Council96%Yes2030July 16, 2019
Amber Valley Borough Council96%Yes2030July 24, 2019
West Lothian Council96%NoNo targetSept. 24, 2019
Calderdale Metropolitan Borough Council96%No2038Jan. 30, 2019

Features

This council’s climate plan has been tagged with the following features:

Integrated with Local Plan Strong on public health

Powers & Responsibilities

Canterbury City Council is a Non-Metropolitan District, with powers over:

Council buildings and staff

Climate actions might include:

  • making council offices more energy efficient
  • incentivising ‘Active Travel’ or public transport use among employees
  • providing carbon literacy training for employees
    Environmental health

    Climate actions might include:

    • reducing industrial emissions through air quality enforcement
    • bringing up insulation and energy efficiency standards through enforcement of the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) and Decent Homes Standard 2000, for cold and damp conditions in private rental and social housing

    See more in the Climate Emergency UK checklist.

    Planning and building control

    Climate actions might include:

    • imposing reasonable requirements that new developments comply with energy efficiency standards and get a proportion of their energy from local, renewable sources (Planning and Energy Act, 2008)
    • incorporating additional energy performance standards into their Local Plan, for new works that require planning permission
    • using Area Action Plans to guide development proposals towards lower carbon emissions or more cycling and walking routes, for example
    • enforcing legislation that requires private rental properties to be of Energy Efficiency Rating E or above (Energy Efficiency Regulations, 2015)
    • funding energy efficiency improvements on existing homes, through initiatives such as Green Homes Grants

    See more in the Climate Emergency UK checklist.

    Housing

    Climate actions might include:

    • setting energy standards above building regulations (Planning and Energy Act, 2008)
    • enabling housing associations to improve the energy efficiency of their housing stock through loans
    • where councils operate their own social housing, prioritising energy efficiency – for example, by requiring Passivhaus standard for newly built schemes

    See more in the Climate Emergency UK checklist.

    Spending, procuring, and investing

    Climate actions might include:

    • embedding carbon impact assessment as part of the council’s budgeting and financial accountability process
    • utilising Public Works Loan Board loans or the Business Rates Retention Scheme to invest in emissions-reducing capital projects that otherwise wouldn’t get funded
    • specifying low carbon equipment and practices when procuring for relevant services from suppliers
    • prioritising positive environmental impacts during procurement, through the Public Services (Social Value) Act 2012
    Waste collection

    Climate actions might include:

    • establishing ‘Joint Waste Solutions’ with neighbouring councils, to get more value out of waste, recycling, and street cleaning contracts
    • running marketing campaigns to encourage residential recycling, reuse, and waste minimisation

    See more in the Climate Emergency UK checklist.

    Read more about English local authority powers in the UK100 Power Shift report.

    More about this council

    canterbury.gov.uk
    Canterbury City Council’s official homepage.
    Tyndall Centre Carbon Budget report
    Check Canterbury City Council’s ‘carbon budget’ – their share towards meeting the UK’s Paris agreement targets.
    Friends of the Earth ‘Near You’ tool
    Discover climate groups in this area, data about Canterbury City Council’s climate performance, and actions you can take.

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    Cite this page

    mySociety, Climate Emergency UK (2022). Climate Action Plan Explorer: Canterbury City Council. Available at: http://data.climateemergency.uk/councils/canterbury-city-council/ [Accessed 25 Jun 2022].

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