Winchester City Council’s Carbon Neutrality Action Plan has been assessed as the third highest ranking district council in the county according to Climate Emergency UK.
Climate scorecards released at the end of January gives the city council a 49% score – putting it above the District Council average of 43 and in the top third of all district councils Climate Emergency UK assessed (58th out of 181) .
The council declared a climate emergency in June 2019 and developed CNAP focussing on priority areas. The plan sets out a series of actions being undertaken that look to achieve a carbon neutral council by 2024 and district by 2030.
The scorecard system has been devised by Climate Emergency UK and marks the first attempt in the UK to quantitatively rank councils on how they’re tackling climate change. Councils around the UK were judged on their climate emergency action plans and given a percentage score based on nine areas:
- Mitigation and adaptation
- Commitment and integration
- Community, engagement and communications
- Measuring and setting emissions targets
- Co-benefits
- Diversity and social inclusion
- Education, skills and training
- Ecological emergency.
Cllr Hannah Williams, Cabinet Member for Climate Emergency said:
“We are proud of the results of our Council Climate Plan Scorecard and how they reflect our efforts to achieve our carbon neutral goals. The results recognised the strengths of our Carbon Neutrality Action Plan, but it also reveals the areas where we need to improve. We are committed at Winchester City Council to making the changes and driving down our carbon emissions making the Winchester district a better place for those who live and work here.
“We know that working together is the key to achieving the areas of improvements that have been highlighted in these scorecards and to allow us to meet our targets. We will continue to demonstrate leadership and our commitment to tackling climate change. Our actions will speak louder than our words as plans are in the works to continue reducing our emissions.”
Climate Emergency UK assessed plans according to 28 questions across nine sections. You can find out more on their website here. Councils are assessed on their published climate action plans, other projects and developments aren’t assessed.
Winchester City Council’s scorecard can be viewed here.
