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City of York Council

Declarations & pledges

Climate emergency declaration

This council declared a climate emergency on March 11, 2019.

Whole area pledge for 2030

“Commit to a target of making York carbon neutral by 2030, taking into account both production and consumption emissions (scope 1, 2 and 3 of the Greenhouse Gas Protocol).”

Climate documents

We couldn’t find any climate action plans for this council.

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

City of York Council scored zero points in this assessment. This is because the council either didn’t have any published plans at the time of the assessment, or the plans didn’t qualify.

SectionCity of York CouncilAverage single tier council
Total score0%50%
Section 1 Governance, development and funding
0/21
10.3/21
Section 2 Mitigation and adaptation
0/18
9.0/18
Section 3 Commitment and integration
0/7
4.1/7
Section 4 Community, engagement and communications
0/9
5.1/9
Section 5 Measuring and setting emissions targets
0/5
2.9/5
Section 6 Co-benefits
0/4
2.2/4
Section 7 Diversity and inclusion
0/5
0.9/5
Section 8 Education, skills and training
0/5
2.3/5
Section 9 Ecological emergency
0/4
2.1/4

Emissions data

806.9 ktCO2

Total 2019 emissions

3.8 tCO2

per person

3.0 ktCO2

per km2

13%

Commercial

35%

Domestic

9%

Industry

5%

Public Sector

38%

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 City of York 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
Charnwood Borough Council85%Yes2030No
Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council80%Yes2030Oct. 8, 2019
Warrington Borough Council80%Yes2030June 7, 2019
Dacorum Council79%Yes2050July 17, 2019
Blaby District Council78%Yes2030No
Leicestershire County Council78%No2030May 15, 2019
Milton Keynes78%Yes2030Jan. 23, 2019
North Hertfordshire District Council77%Yes2030May 21, 2019
Bath and North East Somerset Council77%Yes2030March 14, 2019
Hertfordshire County Council77%Yes2030July 16, 2019

These councils are the most similar to City of York 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
Bedford Borough Council91%Yes2030March 5, 2019
Canterbury City Council91%Yes2030July 18, 2019
Bath and North East Somerset Council91%Yes2030March 14, 2019
Derby City Council89%No2050May 23, 2019
Great Yarmouth Borough Council88%NoNo targetNo
Milton Keynes88%Yes2030Jan. 23, 2019
Dacorum Council88%Yes2050July 17, 2019
Greater Manchester Combined Authority88%No2038July 26, 2019
Bracknell Forest Council87%Yes2050No
Dover District Council87%Yes2030Nov. 4, 2019

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

Council nameSimilarityHas planCarbon Neutral byDeclared emergency
Selby District Council96%Yes2030No
Ryedale District Council94%No2050Oct. 10, 2019
Hambleton District Council92%No2034Dec. 14, 2021
North Yorkshire County Council91%Yes2030No
Harrogate Borough Council90%No2038April 10, 2019
East Riding of Yorkshire Council89%No2050Feb. 24, 2021

These councils are the most similar to City of York 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
East Dunbartonshire Council98%Yes2045No
East Renfrewshire Council96%No2040Aug. 13, 2020
Woking Borough Council95%Yes2030July 25, 2019
Eastleigh Borough Council95%Yes2025July 18, 2019
Bromsgrove District Council95%NoNo targetJuly 24, 2019
Hampshire County Council95%No2050June 17, 2019
Tunbridge Wells Borough Council94%Yes2030July 17, 2019
Rochford District Council94%Yes2030No
Reigate & Banstead Borough Council94%Yes2030No
Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames94%Yes2038June 25, 2019

These councils are the most similar to City of York 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
Hertsmere Borough Council99%Yes2050Sept. 18, 2019
Thurrock Council98%No2022Oct. 23, 2019
Arun District Council97%No2030Jan. 15, 2020
Inverclyde Council97%NoNo targetNo
Wakefield Metropolitan District Council97%Yes2030May 23, 2019
Mansfield District Council96%No2040March 5, 2019
Wokingham Borough Council96%Yes2030July 18, 2019
Gravesham Borough Council96%No2030June 26, 2019
East Renfrewshire Council95%No2040Aug. 13, 2020
Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council95%Yes2030No

Powers & Responsibilities

City of York Council is a Unitary Authority, 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.

    Passenger transport

    Climate actions might include:

    • encouraging bus and private hire operators to use low-emission vehicles, through licensing requirements or Clean Air Zones
    • incentivising bus use by improving routes, timetables, and ticket prices through ‘Enhanced Partnerships’ with operators
    • proposing to central government the development of light rail / tram networks that integrate, rather than compete, with other modes of transport in the area

    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.

    Schools and libraries

    Climate actions might include:

    • reducing the carbon footprint of civic buildings through better insulation and renewable energy use
    • incentivising ‘Active Travel’ or public transport use among employees
    • providing carbon literacy training for employees
    • encouraging eco-clubs at schools
    • using school land to plant trees and hedgerows, or to grow food

    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
    Transport planning

    Climate actions might include:

    • incentivising ‘Active Travel’ like walking and cycling by creating or widening footways and cycleways
    • incentivising Electric Vehicle use by assigning street space to EV charging
    • disincentivising the use of fossil fuel cars through congestion charging,low-traffic neighbourhoods, or the reduction of parking space

    See more in the Climate Emergency UK checklist.

    Waste collection and disposal

    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

    york.gov.uk
    City of York Council’s official homepage.
    Tyndall Centre Carbon Budget report
    Check City of York 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 City of York 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: City of York Council. Available at: http://data.climateemergency.uk/councils/city-of-york-council/ [Accessed 22 May 2022].

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