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Ards and North Down Borough Council

Declarations & pledges

Climate emergency declaration

This council declared a climate emergency on Feb. 27, 2019.

Climate pledges

We couldn’t find any climate pledges from this council. If you’ve found one, let us know!

Climate documents

We couldn’t find any climate action plans for this council.

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

SectionArds and North Down Borough CouncilAverage Northern Ireland council
Total score31%26%
Section 1 Governance, development and funding
7/21
6.0/21
Section 2 Mitigation and adaptation
0/18
3.8/18
Section 3 Commitment and integration
6/7
3.5/7
Section 4 Community, engagement and communications
4/9
3.0/9
Section 5 Measuring and setting emissions targets
0/5
0.5/5
Section 6 Co-benefits
1/4
1.5/4
Section 7 Diversity and inclusion
0/5
0/5
Section 8 Education, skills and training
2/5
1.0/5
Section 9 Ecological emergency
1/4
0.8/4

Emissions data

673.2 ktCO2

Total 2020 emissions

4.2 tCO2

per person

1.2 ktCO2

per km2

53%

Domestic

26%

Transport

12%

Industry

4%

Commercial

3%

Public Sector

3%

Agriculture

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 Ards and North Down Borough 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
Lisburn and Castlereagh City Council67%NoNo targetNo
Copeland Borough Council62%Yes2050No
Durham County Council62%Yes2030Feb. 20, 2019
South Ayrshire Council61%No2045No
Denbighshire County Council60%No2030July 2, 2019
Cumbria County Council60%Yes2050No
East Ayrshire Council60%No2030No
Northumberland Council60%Yes2030June 11, 2019
South Lanarkshire Council59%NoNo targetSept. 25, 2019
North East Combined Authority59%NoNo targetNov. 5, 2019

These councils are the most similar to Ards and North Down Borough 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
Comhairle nan Eilean Siar72%YesNo targetNo
Elmbridge Borough Council61%No2030July 17, 2019
Cheshire East Council (Unitary)61%Yes2025May 22, 2019
Tandridge District Council60%Yes2030Feb. 13, 2020
South Lakeland District Council59%Yes2030Feb. 26, 2019
Mole Valley District Council59%No2030June 18, 2019
Ribble Valley Borough Council57%No2030No
Derry City and Strabane District Council57%Yes2045June 27, 2019
Durham County Council57%Yes2030Feb. 20, 2019
Copeland Borough Council57%Yes2050No
Council nameSimilarityHas planCarbon Neutral byDeclared emergency
Belfast City Council96%YesNo targetOct. 1, 2019
Lisburn and Castlereagh City Council95%NoNo targetNo
Newry, Mourne and Down District Council93%NoNo targetOct. 7, 2019
Mid and East Antrim Borough Council92%NoNo targetSept. 9, 2019
Antrim and Newtownabbey Borough Council92%NoNo targetNo
Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon Borough Council89%NoNo targetNo
Causeway Coast and Glens Borough Council86%No2030May 2, 2020
Mid Ulster District Council85%NoNo targetNo
South Ayrshire Council84%No2045No
North Ayrshire Council82%No2030June 25, 2019

These councils are the most similar to Ards and North Down Borough 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
Blaenau Gwent County Borough Council90%Yes2030Sept. 28, 2020
Mid and East Antrim Borough Council89%NoNo targetSept. 9, 2019
Antrim and Newtownabbey Borough Council88%NoNo targetNo
Great Yarmouth Borough Council85%NoNo targetNo
Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon Borough Council81%NoNo targetNo
Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council81%Yes2040Sept. 18, 2019
Thanet District Council79%Yes2030July 11, 2019
East Lindsey District Council79%Yes2040No
Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council78%Yes2030No
West Dunbartonshire Council78%Yes2045May 29, 2019

These councils are the most similar to Ards and North Down Borough 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
West Lancashire Borough Council99%Yes2030July 17, 2019
Sevenoaks District Council96%Yes2030No
Braintree District Council96%Yes2030July 22, 2019
Tunbridge Wells Borough Council95%Yes2030July 17, 2019
West Suffolk Council95%No2030Sept. 19, 2019
Folkestone and Hythe District Council95%Yes2030July 24, 2019
East Riding of Yorkshire Council95%No2050Feb. 24, 2021
Vale of White Horse District Council93%Yes2045Feb. 13, 2019
East Hampshire District Council93%No2050July 18, 2019
Tendring District Council92%Yes2030Aug. 6, 2019

Features

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

Powers & Responsibilities

Ards and North Down Borough Council is a Northern Irish Council, 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.

    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 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 local authority powers across the UK, at The Institute for Government.

    More about this council

    ardsandnorthdown.gov.uk
    Ards and North Down Borough Council’s official homepage.
    Tyndall Centre Carbon Budget report
    Check Ards and North Down Borough Council’s ‘carbon budget’ – their share towards meeting the UK’s Paris agreement targets.

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    Cite this page

    mySociety, Climate Emergency UK (2023). CAPE: Ards and North Down Borough Council. Available at: http://cape.mysociety.org/councils/ards-and-north-down-borough-council/ [Accessed 22 Mar 2023].

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