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Canterbury City Council

Declarations & pledges

Climate emergency declaration

This council declared a climate emergency on July 18, 2019.

Council only pledge for 2030

“The Council commits to achieving: Net zero emissions by 2030 from the council’s operations and assets.”

Whole area pledge for 2050

“The Council commits to achieving: Net zero emissions by 2050 across the full range of activities needed to support the council’s work.”

Climate documents

Last update: March 16, 2022
Canterbury City Council Climate Change Action Plan 2020–2030 Final For Adoption 1.7

Action Plan · PDF

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Canterbury City Council Action Plan

PDF · We no longer hold a copy of this document

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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

Canterbury City Council was a top performer amongst district councils, in the Commitment and integration section.

SectionCanterbury City CouncilAverage district council
Total score60%43%
Section 1 Governance, development and funding
12/21
9.4/21
Section 2 Mitigation and adaptation
11/18
8.1/18
Section 3 · Top performer Commitment and integration
7/7
3.8/7
Section 4 Community, engagement and communications
4/9
4.7/9
Section 5 Measuring and setting emissions targets
3/5
2.6/5
Section 6 Co-benefits
4/4
1.9/4
Section 7 Diversity and inclusion
1/5
0.5/5
Section 8 Education, skills and training
2/5
1.5/5
Section 9 Ecological emergency
3/4
1.8/4

Emissions data

523.4 ktCO2

Total 2020 emissions

3.1 tCO2

per person

1.6 ktCO2

per km2

39%

Domestic

36%

Transport

11%

Public Sector

9%

Commercial

4%

Industry

2%

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 Canterbury 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
Welwyn Hatfield Council83%Yes2030June 19, 2019
Colchester Borough Council79%Yes2030July 17, 2019
Runnymede Borough Council78%NoNo targetOct. 17, 2019
Milton Keynes78%Yes2030Jan. 23, 2019
Kent County Council77%Yes2030May 23, 2019
Hertfordshire County Council77%Yes2030July 16, 2019
Gloucestershire County Council77%Yes2030May 15, 2019
Maidstone Borough Council77%Yes2030April 10, 2019
Dacorum Council77%Yes2050July 17, 2019
Bedford Borough Council77%Yes2030March 5, 2019

These councils are the most similar to Canterbury 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
City of Edinburgh Council88%Yes2030Feb. 7, 2019
Salford City Council87%No2038July 17, 2019
West Dunbartonshire Council87%Yes2045May 29, 2019
Newcastle-upon-Tyne City Council86%Yes2030April 3, 2019
Birmingham City Council85%No2030June 11, 2019
Preston City Council85%No2030April 18, 2019
Welwyn Hatfield Council85%Yes2030June 19, 2019
Liverpool City Council84%Yes2030July 17, 2019
Bath and North East Somerset Council83%Yes2030March 14, 2019
Norwich City Council82%Yes2030Jan. 29, 2019

Read more about how we calculate this.

Council nameSimilarityHas planCarbon Neutral byDeclared emergency
Dover District Council98%Yes2030Nov. 4, 2019
Thanet District Council97%Yes2030July 11, 2019
Folkestone and Hythe District Council97%Yes2030July 24, 2019
Swale Borough Council96%Yes2025June 26, 2019
Ashford Borough Council96%Yes2030No
Rochford District Council95%Yes2030No
Southend-on-Sea Borough Council94%No2030July 18, 2019
Maidstone Borough Council94%Yes2030April 10, 2019
Maldon District Council93%No2030Feb. 4, 2021
Medway Council93%Yes2050April 25, 2019

These councils are the most similar to Canterbury 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
Chorley Council98%Yes2030Nov. 19, 2019
West Northamptonshire Council97%NoNo targetNo
Milton Keynes96%Yes2030Jan. 23, 2019
Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority95%Yes2050No
Cheshire West and Chester Council94%Yes2030May 21, 2019
East Riding of Yorkshire Council94%No2050Feb. 24, 2021
Vale of Glamorgan Council93%Yes2030July 29, 2019
West Lancashire Borough Council93%Yes2030July 17, 2019
Gloucestershire County Council93%Yes2030May 15, 2019
Aberdeen City Council93%Yes2045No

These councils are the most similar to Canterbury 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
Charnwood Borough Council97%Yes2030No
Darlington Borough Council97%Yes2050July 18, 2019
North Lanarkshire Council97%Yes2030June 20, 2019
Renfrewshire Council97%No2030June 27, 2019
Doncaster Metropolitan Borough Council97%No2040Sept. 19, 2019
Chelmsford City Council96%Yes2030July 16, 2019
Amber Valley Borough Council96%Yes2030July 24, 2019
West Lothian Council96%NoNo targetSept. 24, 2019
Calderdale Metropolitan Borough Council96%Yes2038Jan. 30, 2019
South Gloucestershire Council96%Yes2030July 17, 2019

Features

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

Integrated with Local Plan Strong on public health

Powers & Responsibilities

Canterbury City 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

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

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    Cite this page

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

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