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Norwich City Council

Declarations & pledges

Climate emergency declaration

This council declared a climate emergency on Jan. 29, 2019.

Council only pledge for 2030

“Reducing CO2 emissions from council operations to achieve net zero by 2030.”

Climate documents

Last update: March 16, 2022
Environmental Strategy 2020–25 | Norwich City Council

Action Plan · PDF · · Council Only

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

SectionNorwich City CouncilAverage district council
Total score33%43%
Section 1 Governance, development and funding
9/21
9.4/21
Section 2 Mitigation and adaptation
9/18
8.1/18
Section 3 Commitment and integration
2/7
3.8/7
Section 4 Community, engagement and communications
5/9
4.7/9
Section 5 Measuring and setting emissions targets
3/5
2.6/5
Section 6 Co-benefits
0/4
1.9/4
Section 7 Diversity and inclusion
0/5
0.5/5
Section 8 Education, skills and training
0/5
1.5/5
Section 9 Ecological emergency
0/4
1.8/4

Emissions data

448.0 ktCO2

Total 2019 emissions

3.2 tCO2

per person

11.0 ktCO2

per km2

15%

Commercial

38%

Domestic

13%

Industry

8%

Public Sector

26%

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 Norwich 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
Ipswich Borough Council88%Yes2030July 9, 2019
London Borough of Enfield83%No2030July 8, 2019
City of Lincoln Council83%No2030July 23, 2019
Hastings Borough Council82%Yes2030Feb. 13, 2019
Southend-on-Sea Borough Council81%No2030July 18, 2019
Eastbourne Borough Council81%Yes2030July 10, 2019
Basildon Borough Council80%Yes2030No
Leicester City Council80%Yes2030Feb. 1, 2019
Derby City Council80%No2050May 23, 2019
Luton Borough Council79%Yes2040Jan. 13, 2020

These councils are the most similar to Norwich 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
Eastbourne Borough Council92%Yes2030July 10, 2019
London Borough of Wandsworth91%Yes2050July 17, 2019
Salford City Council88%No2038July 17, 2019
Bristol City Council88%Yes2025Nov. 13, 2018
Worcester City Council88%No2030July 16, 2019
Plymouth City Council87%Yes2030March 18, 2019
Leicester City Council86%Yes2030Feb. 1, 2019
Welwyn Hatfield Council86%Yes2030June 19, 2019
Greater London Authority86%YesDec. 1, 2019
Portsmouth City Council86%No2030March 19, 2019

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

Council nameSimilarityHas planCarbon Neutral byDeclared emergency
Broadland District Council99%No2050No
South Norfolk District Council98%NoNo targetNo
Norfolk County Council95%No2030No

These councils are the most similar to Norwich 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
Barrow-in-Furness Borough Council98%No2037July 16, 2019
Newport City Council97%Yes2030Nov. 23, 2021
Greater Manchester Combined Authority96%No2038July 26, 2019
Doncaster Metropolitan Borough Council96%No2040Sept. 19, 2019
South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority96%No2040Nov. 7, 2019
Sunderland City Council95%Yes2030March 27, 2019
Mansfield District Council95%No2040March 5, 2019
Peterborough City Council95%Yes2030July 24, 2019
Newcastle-upon-Tyne City Council95%Yes2030April 3, 2019
Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council94%No2030Oct. 30, 2019

These councils are the most similar to Norwich 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
City of London100%No2027No
Kingston-upon-Hull City Council100%No2030March 21, 2019
Brighton and Hove City Council100%Yes2030Dec. 13, 2018
Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council100%No2030March 10, 2020
Wolverhampton City Council100%No2028July 17, 2019
Coventry City Council100%NoNo targetJune 18, 2019
London Borough of Richmond upon Thames100%Yes2030July 9, 2019
Ipswich Borough Council100%Yes2030July 9, 2019
Stevenage Borough Council100%No2030June 12, 2019
Gosport Borough Council100%Yes2050No

Powers & Responsibilities

Norwich 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

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

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