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Dacorum Council

Declarations & pledges

Climate emergency declaration

This council declared a climate emergency on July 17, 2019.

Council only pledge for 2050

“Dacorum delivers: fulfilling the zero carbon pledge will make a huge contribution to local sustainability and assist in the national target to reach zero carbon as a nation by 2050”

Climate documents

Last update: June 21, 2022
Report: Climate Change Emergency Progress Update, October 2020

Progress Report · PDF
Dacorum Borough Council’s Climate And Ecological Emegency Strategy

Climate Strategy · PDF · Draft · Whole Area
Climate Change Emergency Strategy And Action Plan Agenda Supplement For Cabinet, June 2020

Action Plan · PDF · 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

SectionDacorum CouncilAverage district council
Total score45%43%
Section 1 Governance, development and funding
6/21
9.4/21
Section 2 Mitigation and adaptation
5/18
8.1/18
Section 3 Commitment and integration
5/7
3.8/7
Section 4 Community, engagement and communications
5/9
4.7/9
Section 5 Measuring and setting emissions targets
4/5
2.6/5
Section 6 Co-benefits
1/4
1.9/4
Section 7 Diversity and inclusion
0/5
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

542.7 ktCO2

Total 2020 emissions

3.5 tCO2

per person

2.6 ktCO2

per km2

40%

Domestic

34%

Transport

13%

Commercial

7%

Industry

5%

Public Sector

1%

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 Dacorum 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
Hertfordshire County Council93%Yes2030July 16, 2019
Hertsmere Borough Council87%Yes2050Sept. 18, 2019
Welwyn Hatfield Council87%Yes2030June 19, 2019
Milton Keynes86%Yes2030Jan. 23, 2019
West Sussex County Council85%Yes2030April 5, 2019
Essex County Council83%Yes2030No
Arun District Council83%No2030Jan. 15, 2020
Bedford Borough Council83%Yes2030March 5, 2019
Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council82%Yes2030Oct. 8, 2019
Charnwood Borough Council82%Yes2030No

These councils are the most similar to Dacorum 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
Renfrewshire Council93%No2030June 27, 2019
Hertfordshire County Council91%Yes2030July 16, 2019
North Tyneside Metropolitan Borough Council90%Yes2050July 25, 2019
Midlothian Council89%No2030Dec. 17, 2019
East Sussex County Council88%Yes2050Oct. 15, 2019
Great Yarmouth Borough Council88%NoNo targetNo
Burnley Borough Council88%Yes2030July 10, 2019
Bury Metropolitan Borough Council88%Yes2038July 10, 2019
Bedford Borough Council88%Yes2030March 5, 2019
Tunbridge Wells Borough Council88%Yes2030July 17, 2019

Read more about how we calculate this.

Council nameSimilarityHas planCarbon Neutral byDeclared emergency
Three Rivers District Council98%No2030May 21, 2019
Luton Borough Council98%Yes2040Jan. 13, 2020
Watford Borough Council97%No2030July 9, 2019
St Albans City and District Council97%No2030July 9, 2019
Gloucestershire County Council97%Yes2030May 15, 2019
Central Bedfordshire Council96%No2030July 19, 2019
London Borough of Hillingdon96%Yes2030Jan. 16, 2020
Buckinghamshire Council96%No2050No
London Borough of Harrow96%Yes2030July 18, 2019
Slough Borough Council96%YesNo targetNo

These councils are the most similar to Dacorum 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
Hertsmere Borough Council96%Yes2050Sept. 18, 2019
South Ribble Borough Council96%Yes2030July 24, 2019
Maldon District Council95%No2030Feb. 4, 2021
Hertfordshire County Council95%Yes2030July 16, 2019
West Sussex County Council95%Yes2030April 5, 2019
East Devon District Council95%Yes2040July 24, 2019
Gedling Borough Council95%Yes2030Nov. 20, 2019
Mid Suffolk District Council94%Yes2030July 25, 2019
The Moray Council94%Yes2030June 27, 2019
Welwyn Hatfield Council94%Yes2030June 19, 2019

These councils are the most similar to Dacorum 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
Surrey County Council100%Yes2030July 9, 2019
Hertfordshire County Council99%Yes2030July 16, 2019
Swansea City Council98%No2030June 27, 2019
Rochford District Council98%Yes2030No
South Gloucestershire Council97%Yes2030July 17, 2019
Charnwood Borough Council97%Yes2030No
Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead97%No2050June 26, 2019
Peterborough City Council96%Yes2030July 24, 2019
Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council96%Yes2040Sept. 18, 2019
Darlington Borough Council96%Yes2050July 18, 2019

Features

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

Integrated with Local Plan

Powers & Responsibilities

Dacorum 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

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

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    Cite this page

    mySociety, Climate Emergency UK (2023). CAPE: Dacorum Council. Available at: http://cape.mysociety.org/councils/dacorum-council/ [Accessed 24 Mar 2023].

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