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Carmarthenshire County Council

Declarations & pledges

Climate emergency declaration

This council declared a climate emergency on Feb. 20, 2019.

Council only pledge for 2030

“Following an impassioned debate, Members unanimously resolved to declare a climate emergency and committed to become a net zero carbon local authority by 2030.”

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

SectionCarmarthenshire County CouncilAverage single tier council
Total score32%50%
Section 1 Governance, development and funding
10/21
10.3/21
Section 2 Mitigation and adaptation
2/18
9.0/18
Section 3 Commitment and integration
5/7
4.1/7
Section 4 Community, engagement and communications
3/9
5.1/9
Section 5 Measuring and setting emissions targets
2/5
2.9/5
Section 6 Co-benefits
1/4
2.2/4
Section 7 Diversity and inclusion
0/5
0.9/5
Section 8 Education, skills and training
1/5
2.3/5
Section 9 Ecological emergency
0/4
2.1/4

Emissions data

930.8 ktCO2

Total 2020 emissions

4.9 tCO2

per person

0.4 ktCO2

per km2

35%

Domestic

34%

Transport

13%

Industry

12%

Agriculture

3%

Commercial

2%

Public Sector

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 Carmarthenshire County 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
Herefordshire Council76%Yes2030March 8, 2019
Torridge District Council75%Yes2030July 1, 2019
North Devon Council74%Yes2030July 24, 2019
Shropshire Council - Unitary73%No2030May 16, 2019
Isle of Anglesey County Council72%Yes2030Sept. 8, 2020
West Devon Borough Council72%Yes2030May 21, 2019
Ceredigion County Council71%Yes2030March 5, 2020
Dumfries and Galloway Council71%Yes2025June 27, 2019
Pembrokeshire County Council69%Yes2030May 9, 2019
Denbighshire County Council69%No2030July 2, 2019

These councils are the most similar to Carmarthenshire County 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
Scottish Borders Council92%Yes2045Sept. 5, 2020
Craven District Council80%No2030Aug. 6, 2019
Isle of Anglesey County Council80%Yes2030Sept. 8, 2020
Northumberland Council78%Yes2030June 11, 2019
Dumfries and Galloway Council76%Yes2025June 27, 2019
East Ayrshire Council76%No2030No
Aberdeenshire Council73%No2045No
The Highland Council72%No2025May 9, 2019
Herefordshire Council70%Yes2030March 8, 2019
Argyll and Bute Council69%Yes2045No
Council nameSimilarityHas planCarbon Neutral byDeclared emergency
Swansea City Council95%No2030June 27, 2019
Ceredigion County Council93%Yes2030March 5, 2020
Neath Port Talbot County Borough Council92%NoNo targetSept. 28, 2022
Bridgend County Borough Council89%No2030July 22, 2022
Pembrokeshire County Council87%Yes2030May 9, 2019
Rhondda Cynon Taf County Borough Council87%Yes2050No
Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council86%Yes2030No
Powys County Council85%No2030July 30, 2020
North Devon Council85%Yes2030July 24, 2019
Vale of Glamorgan Council85%Yes2030July 29, 2019

These councils are the most similar to Carmarthenshire County 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
Torridge District Council93%Yes2030July 1, 2019
King's Lynn and West Norfolk Borough Council92%Yes2050Feb. 4, 2020
Cornwall Council (Unitary)92%Yes2030Jan. 22, 2019
Boston Borough Council91%NoNo targetJan. 20, 2020
Comhairle nan Eilean Siar90%YesNo targetNo
West Devon Borough Council90%Yes2030May 21, 2019
Ceredigion County Council90%Yes2030March 5, 2020
Isle of Wight Council87%No2030July 24, 2019
Pembrokeshire County Council84%Yes2030May 9, 2019
Ryedale District Council84%No2050Oct. 10, 2019

These councils are the most similar to Carmarthenshire County 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
Wiltshire Council95%No2030Feb. 26, 2019
Somerset County Council95%No2030Feb. 20, 2019
Mid and East Antrim Borough Council93%NoNo targetSept. 9, 2019
Norfolk County Council92%No2030No
North Yorkshire County Council92%Yes2030No
Rother District Council92%No2030Sept. 16, 2019
Wealden District Council91%Yes2050July 24, 2019
Stirling Council91%YesNo targetOct. 3, 2019
Breckland District Council91%Yes2035Sept. 19, 2019
Melton Borough Council91%No2030July 17, 2019

Features

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

Powers & Responsibilities

Carmarthenshire County Council is a Unitary Authority, 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 local authority powers across the UK, at The Institute for Government.

    More about this council

    carmarthenshire.gov.wales
    Carmarthenshire County Council’s official homepage.
    Tyndall Centre Carbon Budget report
    Check Carmarthenshire County 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 Carmarthenshire County Council’s climate performance, and actions you can take.

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    Cite this page

    mySociety, Climate Emergency UK (2023). CAPE: Carmarthenshire County Council. Available at: http://cape.mysociety.org/councils/carmarthenshire-county-council/ [Accessed 26 Mar 2023].

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