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City of London

Declarations & pledges

Climate emergency declaration

We don’t think this council has declared a climate emergency – let us know if it has!

Council only pledge for 2027

“Achieve net zero carbon emissions from our own operations by 2027.”

Whole area pledge for 2040

“Support the achievement of net zero for the Square Mile by 2040.”

Climate documents

Last update: March 16, 2022
Climate Action Strategy 2020–2027

Climate Strategy · PDF · Approved · Council Only

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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

SectionCity of LondonAverage single tier council
Total score36%50%
Section 1 Governance, development and funding
5/21
10.3/21
Section 2 Mitigation and adaptation
8/18
9.0/18
Section 3 Commitment and integration
3/7
4.1/7
Section 4 Community, engagement and communications
3/9
5.1/9
Section 5 Measuring and setting emissions targets
4/5
2.9/5
Section 6 Co-benefits
3/4
2.2/4
Section 7 Diversity and inclusion
0/5
0.9/5
Section 8 Education, skills and training
0/5
2.3/5
Section 9 Ecological emergency
2/4
2.1/4

Emissions data

497.9 ktCO2

Total 2020 emissions

45.5 tCO2

per person

158.1 ktCO2

per km2

68%

Commercial

11%

Transport

10%

Public Sector

9%

Industry

2%

Domestic

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 City of London 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
Cambridge City Council82%Yes2030Feb. 21, 2019
Oxford City Council81%Yes2030Jan. 28, 2019
Cheltenham Borough Council67%Yes2030Feb. 18, 2019
Exeter City Council66%Yes2030July 23, 2019
Runnymede Borough Council64%NoNo targetOct. 17, 2019
Canterbury City Council61%Yes2030July 18, 2019
City of Lincoln Council61%Yes2030July 23, 2019
Reading Borough Council60%Yes2030Feb. 26, 2019
London Borough of Camden60%Yes2030April 8, 2019
Worcester City Council59%Yes2030July 16, 2019

These councils are the most similar to City of London 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
London Borough of Camden92%Yes2030April 8, 2019
Westminster City Council87%Yes2030Sept. 18, 2019
Cambridge City Council81%Yes2030Feb. 21, 2019
Oxford City Council79%Yes2030Jan. 28, 2019
Nottingham City Council68%Yes2028Jan. 21, 2019
Cheltenham Borough Council64%Yes2030Feb. 18, 2019
London Borough of Southwark63%No2050March 27, 2019
London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham63%Yes2030July 17, 2019
Exeter City Council61%Yes2030July 23, 2019
Newcastle-upon-Tyne City Council61%Yes2030April 3, 2019

Read more about how we calculate this.

Council nameSimilarityHas planCarbon Neutral byDeclared emergency
Greater London Authority100%YesDec. 1, 2019
London Borough of Islington99%Yes2030June 27, 2019
London Borough of Southwark99%No2050March 27, 2019
London Borough of Hackney99%Yes2040June 28, 2019
London Borough of Tower Hamlets99%No2025July 17, 2019
London Borough of Lambeth99%Yes2030Jan. 23, 2019
Westminster City Council99%Yes2030Sept. 18, 2019
London Borough of Camden99%Yes2030April 8, 2019
London Borough of Haringey99%Yes2027March 18, 2019
Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea99%Yes2030Oct. 1, 2019

These councils are the most similar to City of London 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
Watford Borough Council91%No2030July 9, 2019
Worthing Borough Council87%YesJuly 18, 2019
London Borough of Hillingdon86%Yes2030Jan. 16, 2020
London Borough of Barnet85%NoNo targetMay 24, 2022
London Borough of Havering85%NoNo targetNo
Broxbourne Borough Council84%NoNo targetNo
Spelthorne Borough Council84%No2050Oct. 14, 2020
London Borough of Redbridge83%Yes2050June 20, 2019
London Borough of Harrow83%Yes2030July 18, 2019
Rushmoor Borough Council81%Yes2030June 20, 2019

These councils are the most similar to City of London 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
Norwich City Council100%Yes2030Jan. 29, 2019
Kingston-upon-Hull City Council100%No2030March 21, 2019
Glasgow City Council99%Yes2030May 16, 2019
Brighton and Hove City Council99%Yes2030Dec. 13, 2018
London Borough of Richmond upon Thames99%Yes2030July 9, 2019
Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council99%No2030March 10, 2020
Wolverhampton City Council99%No2028July 17, 2019
Coventry City Council99%NoNo targetJune 18, 2019
Ipswich Borough Council98%Yes2030July 9, 2019
Stevenage Borough Council98%No2030June 12, 2019

Features

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

Strong on public health

Powers & Responsibilities

City of London has 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.

    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

    cityoflondon.gov.uk
    City of London’s official homepage.
    Tyndall Centre Carbon Budget report
    Check City of London’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 City of London’s climate performance, and actions you can take.

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    Cite this page

    mySociety, Climate Emergency UK (2023). CAPE: City of London. Available at: http://cape.mysociety.org/councils/city-of-london/ [Accessed 27 May 2023].

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