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Nottingham City Council

Declarations & pledges

Climate emergency declaration

This council declared a climate emergency on Jan. 21, 2019.

Whole area pledge for 2028

“Nottingham City Council has responded to the climate and environmental crisis by setting an ambition to become the first carbon neutral city in the UK by 2028.”

Climate documents

Last update: March 16, 2022
Carbon Neutral Nottingham: 2020–2028 Action Plan

Action Plan · PDF · Approved · Whole Area

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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

Nottingham City Council was a top performer amongst single tier councils, in two sections including Measuring and setting emissions targets.

SectionNottingham City CouncilAverage single tier council
Total score76%50%
Section 1 Governance, development and funding
14/21
10.3/21
Section 2 Mitigation and adaptation
15/18
9.0/18
Section 3 Commitment and integration
6/7
4.1/7
Section 4 Community, engagement and communications
5/9
5.1/9
Section 5 · Top performer Measuring and setting emissions targets
5/5
2.9/5
Section 6 Co-benefits
4/4
2.2/4
Section 7 Diversity and inclusion
2/5
0.9/5
Section 8 · Top performer Education, skills and training
5/5
2.3/5
Section 9 Ecological emergency
3/4
2.1/4

Emissions data

1102.6 ktCO2

Total 2019 emissions

3.3 tCO2

per person

14.8 ktCO2

per km2

14%

Commercial

35%

Domestic

9%

Industry

11%

Public Sector

31%

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 Nottingham 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
Manchester City Council87%Yes2038July 10, 2019
West Midlands Combined Authority84%No2041June 28, 2019
Salford City Council83%No2038July 17, 2019
Liverpool City Council83%Yes2030July 17, 2019
Preston City Council80%No2030April 18, 2019
Wolverhampton City Council80%No2028July 17, 2019
Kingston-upon-Hull City Council80%No2030March 21, 2019
City of Lincoln Council79%No2030July 23, 2019
Liverpool City Region Combined Authority79%Yes2040April 28, 2019
Leicester City Council79%Yes2030Feb. 1, 2019

These councils are the most similar to Nottingham 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
London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham88%No2030July 17, 2019
Bristol City Council87%Yes2025Nov. 13, 2018
Exeter City Council85%Yes2030July 23, 2019
London Borough of Lambeth83%Yes2030Jan. 23, 2019
City of Lincoln Council83%No2030July 23, 2019
Manchester City Council82%Yes2038July 10, 2019
Liverpool City Council81%Yes2030July 17, 2019
Norwich City Council81%Yes2030Jan. 29, 2019
Newcastle-upon-Tyne City Council80%Yes2030April 3, 2019
City of London80%No2027No

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

Council nameSimilarityHas planCarbon Neutral byDeclared emergency
Broxtowe Borough Council98%Yes2027July 17, 2019
Gedling Borough Council98%Yes2030Nov. 20, 2019
Rushcliffe Borough Council97%Yes2030March 7, 2019
Ashfield District Council97%NoNo targetNo
Nottinghamshire County Council94%No2030May 27, 2021

These councils are the most similar to Nottingham 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
Stoke-on-Trent City Council99%NoNo targetJuly 4, 2019
Kingston-upon-Hull City Council99%No2030March 21, 2019
Birmingham City Council94%No2030June 11, 2019
Manchester City Council93%Yes2038July 10, 2019
Blackpool Borough Council93%Yes2030June 26, 2019
Salford City Council92%No2038July 17, 2019
Burnley Borough Council92%No2030July 10, 2019
Wolverhampton City Council92%No2028July 17, 2019
Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council91%No2030March 10, 2020
Bradford Metropolitan District Council90%No2030Jan. 15, 2019

These councils are the most similar to Nottingham 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
London Borough of Croydon100%YesNo targetJuly 15, 2019
Liverpool City Council100%Yes2030July 17, 2019
Slough Borough Council100%YesNo targetNo
London Borough of Barnet100%NoNo targetNo
Watford Borough Council100%No2030July 9, 2019
Southend-on-Sea Borough Council100%No2030July 18, 2019
London Borough of Sutton100%No2045July 22, 2019
Birmingham City Council100%No2030June 11, 2019
Bristol City Council100%Yes2025Nov. 13, 2018
Manchester City Council100%Yes2038July 10, 2019

Features

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

Comprehensive plan for mitigation Strong on public health Good on green jobs, skills & training

Powers & Responsibilities

Nottingham City 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

    nottinghamcity.gov.uk
    Nottingham City Council’s official homepage.
    Tyndall Centre Carbon Budget report
    Check Nottingham 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 Nottingham 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: Nottingham City Council. Available at: http://data.climateemergency.uk/councils/nottingham-city-council/ [Accessed 27 Jun 2022].

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