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Birmingham City Council

Declarations & pledges

Climate emergency declaration

This council declared a climate emergency on June 11, 2019.

Council only pledge for 2030

“That the Council will lead by example and seek to be net zero carbon by 2030 – again ensuring that this is just – taking communities with us, protecting employment and without impoverishing deprived communities.”

Whole area pledge for 2030

“To aspire for the City to be net zero carbon by 2030 or as soon after as a just transition permits – making sure we take communities with us, protecting employment and without impoverishing deprived communities.”

Climate documents

Last update: March 16, 2022

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

SectionBirmingham City CouncilAverage single tier council
Total score53%50%
Section 1 Governance, development and funding
11/21
10.3/21
Section 2 Mitigation and adaptation
10/18
9.0/18
Section 3 Commitment and integration
4/7
4.1/7
Section 4 Community, engagement and communications
5/9
5.1/9
Section 5 Measuring and setting emissions targets
3/5
2.9/5
Section 6 Co-benefits
3/4
2.2/4
Section 7 Diversity and inclusion
2/5
0.9/5
Section 8 Education, skills and training
2/5
2.3/5
Section 9 Ecological emergency
2/4
2.1/4

Emissions data

3508.4 ktCO2

Total 2020 emissions

3.1 tCO2

per person

13.1 ktCO2

per km2

38%

Domestic

31%

Transport

15%

Industry

10%

Commercial

7%

Public Sector

0%

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 Birmingham 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
Liverpool City Council89%Yes2030July 17, 2019
Wolverhampton City Council87%No2028July 17, 2019
Manchester City Council86%Yes2038July 10, 2019
Salford City Council85%No2038July 17, 2019
Nottingham City Council83%Yes2028Jan. 21, 2019
Kingston-upon-Hull City Council83%No2030March 21, 2019
Derby City Council83%Yes2050May 23, 2019
Liverpool City Region Combined Authority80%Yes2040April 28, 2019
Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council80%No2030March 10, 2020
Blackpool Borough Council79%Yes2030June 26, 2019

These councils are the most similar to Birmingham 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
Liverpool City Council91%Yes2030July 17, 2019
Derby City Council91%Yes2050May 23, 2019
Salford City Council88%No2038July 17, 2019
Cardiff Council86%Yes2030March 28, 2019
Canterbury City Council85%Yes2030July 18, 2019
Welwyn Hatfield Council83%Yes2030June 19, 2019
City of Edinburgh Council83%Yes2030Feb. 7, 2019
Leeds City Council83%No2030March 27, 2019
Manchester City Council82%Yes2038July 10, 2019
Norwich City Council82%Yes2030Jan. 29, 2019
Council nameSimilarityHas planCarbon Neutral byDeclared emergency
Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council97%No2030March 10, 2020
Walsall Metropolitan Borough Council97%Yes2050Sept. 16, 2019
Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council97%Yes2030Oct. 8, 2019
Bromsgrove District Council96%YesNo targetJuly 24, 2019
Lichfield District Council96%NoNo targetDec. 10, 2019
Redditch Borough Council96%No2050Sept. 23, 2019
Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council96%NoNo targetJuly 6, 2020
Tamworth Borough Council96%No2050Oct. 19, 2019
North Warwickshire Borough Council95%No2030Oct. 22, 2019
Cannock Chase District Council95%No2030July 17, 2019

These councils are the most similar to Birmingham 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
Kingston-upon-Hull City Council94%No2030March 21, 2019
Liverpool City Council92%Yes2030July 17, 2019
Nottingham City Council91%Yes2028Jan. 21, 2019
Blackpool Borough Council91%Yes2030June 26, 2019
Manchester City Council91%Yes2038July 10, 2019
Wolverhampton City Council91%No2028July 17, 2019
Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council91%No2030March 10, 2020
Stoke-on-Trent City Council87%NoNo targetJuly 4, 2019
West Midlands Combined Authority83%No2041June 28, 2019
Belfast City Council82%YesNo targetOct. 1, 2019

These councils are the most similar to Birmingham 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
Bristol City Council100%Yes2025Nov. 13, 2018
Southend-on-Sea Borough Council99%No2030July 18, 2019
London Borough of Enfield99%No2030July 8, 2019
London Borough of Bexley99%NoNo targetNo
Liverpool City Council98%Yes2030July 17, 2019
Nottingham City Council98%Yes2028Jan. 21, 2019
Reading Borough Council98%Yes2030Feb. 26, 2019
London Borough of Croydon98%YesNo targetJuly 15, 2019
Slough Borough Council98%YesNo targetNo
Blackpool Borough Council98%Yes2030June 26, 2019

Features

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

Powers & Responsibilities

Birmingham City Council is a 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.

    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

    birmingham.gov.uk
    Birmingham City Council’s official homepage.
    Tyndall Centre Carbon Budget report
    Check Birmingham 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 Birmingham City Council’s climate performance, and actions you can take.

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    Cite this page

    mySociety, Climate Emergency UK (2023). CAPE: Birmingham City Council. Available at: http://cape.mysociety.org/councils/birmingham-city-council/ [Accessed 26 Mar 2023].

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