Back to all councils

Dacorum Council

Declarations & pledges

Climate emergency declaration

This council declared a climate emergency on July 17, 2019.

Council only pledge for 2050

“Dacorum delivers: fulfilling the zero carbon pledge will make a huge contribution to local sustainability and assist in the national target to reach zero carbon as a nation by 2050”

Climate documents

Last update: March 16, 2022
Dacorum Borough Council’s Climate And Ecological Emegency Strategy

Climate Strategy · PDF · Draft · Whole Area
Climate Change Emergency Strategy And Action Plan Agenda Supplement For Cabinet, June 2020

Action Plan · PDF · · Council Only
Report: Climate Change Emergency Progress Update, October 2020

Document · PDF · ·

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

SectionDacorum CouncilAverage district council
Total score45%43%
Section 1 Governance, development and funding
6/21
9.4/21
Section 2 Mitigation and adaptation
5/18
8.1/18
Section 3 Commitment and integration
5/7
3.8/7
Section 4 Community, engagement and communications
5/9
4.7/9
Section 5 Measuring and setting emissions targets
4/5
2.6/5
Section 6 Co-benefits
1/4
1.9/4
Section 7 Diversity and inclusion
0/5
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

582.6 ktCO2

Total 2019 emissions

3.8 tCO2

per person

2.7 ktCO2

per km2

14%

Commercial

39%

Domestic

7%

Industry

4%

Public Sector

37%

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 Dacorum 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
Hertfordshire County Council90%Yes2030July 16, 2019
Hertsmere Borough Council89%Yes2050Sept. 18, 2019
Kent County Council88%Yes2030May 23, 2019
Essex County Council88%No2030No
Milton Keynes86%Yes2030Jan. 23, 2019
Surrey County Council85%Yes2030July 9, 2019
West Sussex County Council85%Yes2030April 5, 2019
North Hertfordshire District Council85%Yes2030May 21, 2019
Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council85%Yes2030Oct. 8, 2019
Welwyn Hatfield Council84%Yes2030June 19, 2019

These councils are the most similar to Dacorum 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
Essex County Council92%No2030No
Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council92%Yes2030Oct. 8, 2019
North Tyneside Metropolitan Borough Council88%Yes2050July 25, 2019
City of York Council88%No2030March 11, 2019
Tunbridge Wells Borough Council88%Yes2030July 17, 2019
Great Yarmouth Borough Council87%NoNo targetNo
South Tyneside Council87%No2030July 18, 2019
Bury Metropolitan Borough Council87%Yes2038July 10, 2019
Folkestone and Hythe District Council87%Yes2030July 24, 2019
Kent County Council86%Yes2030May 23, 2019

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

Council nameSimilarityHas planCarbon Neutral byDeclared emergency
Three Rivers District Council98%No2030May 21, 2019
St Albans City and District Council97%No2030July 9, 2019
Central Bedfordshire Council96%No2030March 5, 2019
Buckinghamshire Council96%No2050No
Hertfordshire County Council94%Yes2030July 16, 2019

These councils are the most similar to Dacorum 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
Hertfordshire County Council97%Yes2030July 16, 2019
Cambridge City Council96%Yes2030Feb. 21, 2019
Oadby and Wigston Borough Council96%No2030No
Hinckley and Bosworth Borough Council95%No2030July 16, 2019
Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council94%Yes2025July 18, 2019
Kent County Council94%Yes2030May 23, 2019
Broxtowe Borough Council94%Yes2027July 17, 2019
South Staffordshire Council93%YesNo targetSept. 10, 2019
South Ribble Borough Council93%Yes2030July 24, 2019
North West Leicestershire District Council93%Yes2030June 25, 2019

These councils are the most similar to Dacorum 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
Rochford District Council98%Yes2030No
Swansea City Council98%No2030June 27, 2019
South Gloucestershire Council97%Yes2030July 17, 2019
Essex County Council97%No2030No
Charnwood Borough Council97%Yes2030No
Peterborough City Council97%Yes2030July 24, 2019
Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead97%No2050June 26, 2019
Welwyn Hatfield Council97%Yes2030June 19, 2019
Darlington Borough Council96%Yes2050July 18, 2019
Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council96%Yes2040Sept. 18, 2019

Features

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

Integrated with Local Plan

Powers & Responsibilities

Dacorum 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

    dacorum.gov.uk
    Dacorum Council’s official homepage.
    Tyndall Centre Carbon Budget report
    Check Dacorum 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 Dacorum Council’s climate performance, and actions you can take.

    What do you want from Climate Action Plans?

    Help us improve this page by answering our short survey about who uses this service, and what makes action plans useful to you.

    Open survey

    Don’t have time right now? Let us know your email address, and we’ll send you a link to the survey in a few days.

    Cite this page

    mySociety, Climate Emergency UK (2022). Climate Action Plan Explorer: Dacorum Council. Available at: http://data.climateemergency.uk/councils/dacorum-council/ [Accessed 23 May 2022].

    Alpha

    This is a new service – your feedback will help us improve it.