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Three Rivers District Council

Declarations & pledges

Climate emergency declaration

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

Council only pledge for 2030

“In 2019 Three Rivers District Council declared a climate emergency, committing to making its own operations carbon neutral by 2030.”

Whole area pledge for 2050

“In 2019 Three Rivers District Council declared a climate emergency, committing to... helping the district achieve the government target of net zero carbon by 2050.”

Climate documents

Last update: March 16, 2022
Three Rivers District Council Climate Emergency And Sustainability Strategy

Climate Strategy · PDF · Approved ·

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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

Three Rivers District Council was a top performer amongst district councils, in the Measuring and setting emissions targets section.

SectionThree Rivers District CouncilAverage district council
Total score55%43%
Section 1 Governance, development and funding
6/21
9.4/21
Section 2 Mitigation and adaptation
14/18
8.1/18
Section 3 Commitment and integration
3/7
3.8/7
Section 4 Community, engagement and communications
8/9
4.7/9
Section 5 · Top performer Measuring and setting emissions targets
5/5
2.6/5
Section 6 Co-benefits
3/4
1.9/4
Section 7 Diversity and inclusion
1/5
0.5/5
Section 8 Education, skills and training
0/5
1.5/5
Section 9 Ecological emergency
3/4
1.8/4

Emissions data

326.2 ktCO2

Total 2019 emissions

3.5 tCO2

per person

3.7 ktCO2

per km2

12%

Commercial

46%

Domestic

8%

Industry

4%

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 Three Rivers District 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
Reigate & Banstead Borough Council93%Yes2030No
London Borough of Bromley92%Yes2029No
Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead88%No2050June 26, 2019
Surrey County Council87%Yes2030July 9, 2019
Epsom and Ewell Borough Council87%Yes2035July 23, 2019
St Albans City and District Council87%No2030July 9, 2019
London Borough of Richmond upon Thames86%Yes2030July 9, 2019
Spelthorne Borough Council84%No2050Oct. 14, 2020
Hertsmere Borough Council83%Yes2050Sept. 18, 2019
Hertfordshire County Council83%Yes2030July 16, 2019

These councils are the most similar to Three Rivers District 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
Reigate & Banstead Borough Council93%Yes2030No
London Borough of Bromley91%Yes2029No
London Borough of Richmond upon Thames89%Yes2030July 9, 2019
Epsom and Ewell Borough Council89%Yes2035July 23, 2019
Wokingham Borough Council87%Yes2030July 18, 2019
Sevenoaks District Council87%Yes2030No
Copeland Borough Council86%Yes2050No
St Albans City and District Council86%No2030July 9, 2019
Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead86%No2050June 26, 2019
Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council85%No2038March 28, 2019

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

Council nameSimilarityHas planCarbon Neutral byDeclared emergency
Watford Borough Council99%No2030July 9, 2019
London Borough of Hillingdon98%Yes2030Jan. 16, 2020
London Borough of Harrow98%Yes2030July 18, 2019
Dacorum Council98%Yes2050July 17, 2019
St Albans City and District Council98%No2030July 9, 2019
Hertsmere Borough Council97%Yes2050Sept. 18, 2019
Hertfordshire County Council95%Yes2030July 16, 2019

These councils are the most similar to Three Rivers District 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
Charnwood Borough Council98%Yes2030No
Chelmsford City Council97%Yes2030July 16, 2019
Runnymede Borough Council97%NoNo targetOct. 17, 2019
South Gloucestershire Council97%Yes2030July 17, 2019
Sevenoaks District Council96%Yes2030No
Bath and North East Somerset Council95%Yes2030March 14, 2019
Central Bedfordshire Council95%No2030March 5, 2019
North Hertfordshire District Council95%Yes2030May 21, 2019
Tonbridge and Malling Borough Council95%Yes2030July 9, 2019
Warwickshire County Council95%Yes2030July 25, 2019

These councils are the most similar to Three Rivers District 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
Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council99%Yes2030July 18, 2019
City of Edinburgh Council98%Yes2030Feb. 7, 2019
Leeds City Council98%No2030March 27, 2019
Thanet District Council98%Yes2030July 11, 2019
Wigan Metropolitan Borough Council98%Yes2038July 17, 2019
Burnley Borough Council98%No2030July 10, 2019
Bury Metropolitan Borough Council98%Yes2038July 10, 2019
Newcastle-upon-Tyne City Council98%Yes2030April 3, 2019
Surrey County Council97%Yes2030July 9, 2019
St Helens Metropolitan Borough Council97%Yes2040June 10, 2019

Features

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

Integrated with Local Plan Clear communication

Powers & Responsibilities

Three Rivers District 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

    threerivers.gov.uk
    Three Rivers District Council’s official homepage.
    Tyndall Centre Carbon Budget report
    Check Three Rivers District 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 Three Rivers District 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: Three Rivers District Council. Available at: http://data.climateemergency.uk/councils/three-rivers-district-council/ [Accessed 27 Jun 2022].

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