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Denbighshire County Council

Declarations & pledges

Climate emergency declaration

This council declared a climate emergency on July 2, 2019.

Council only pledge for 2030

“Denbighshire County Council declared a Climate Change and Ecological Emergency in July 2019. In response and by the 31st March 2030 the Council aims to become a: Net Carbon Zero Council and a Ecologically Positive Council.”

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

SectionDenbighshire County CouncilAverage single tier council
Total score47%50%
Section 1 Governance, development and funding
9/21
10.3/21
Section 2 Mitigation and adaptation
3/18
9.0/18
Section 3 Commitment and integration
6/7
4.1/7
Section 4 Community, engagement and communications
7/9
5.1/9
Section 5 Measuring and setting emissions targets
2/5
2.9/5
Section 6 Co-benefits
0/4
2.2/4
Section 7 Diversity and inclusion
0/5
0.9/5
Section 8 Education, skills and training
3/5
2.3/5
Section 9 Ecological emergency
3/4
2.1/4

Emissions data

409.4 ktCO2

Total 2020 emissions

4.2 tCO2

per person

0.5 ktCO2

per km2

37%

Domestic

35%

Transport

12%

Industry

6%

Agriculture

6%

Public Sector

5%

Commercial

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 Denbighshire 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
Shropshire Council - Unitary80%No2030May 16, 2019
Conwy County Borough Council80%No2030May 9, 2019
Somerset County Council77%No2030Feb. 20, 2019
Copeland Borough Council77%Yes2050No
Lancaster City Council77%Yes2030Jan. 30, 2019
Wychavon District Council76%Yes2050No
West Lancashire Borough Council76%Yes2030July 17, 2019
South Somerset District Council76%Yes2023May 21, 2019
Durham County Council76%Yes2030Feb. 20, 2019
Devon County Council76%Yes2030Feb. 21, 2019

These councils are the most similar to Denbighshire 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
West Oxfordshire District Council88%Yes2030June 26, 2019
Gwynedd County Council87%No2030March 7, 2019
East Lothian Council86%No2045Aug. 27, 2019
Stafford Borough Council86%No2040July 23, 2019
North Kesteven District Council85%Yes2030July 11, 2019
North of Tyne Combined Authority81%YesNo targetMay 7, 2019
Inverclyde Council81%NoNo targetNo
West Lancashire Borough Council80%Yes2030July 17, 2019
Vale of Glamorgan Council80%Yes2030July 29, 2019
Wiltshire Council80%No2030Feb. 26, 2019
Council nameSimilarityHas planCarbon Neutral byDeclared emergency
Flintshire County Council95%YesNo targetNo
Wrexham County Borough Council93%No2030Sept. 25, 2019
Conwy County Borough Council92%No2030May 9, 2019
Wirral Council92%No2030July 15, 2019
Liverpool City Council89%Yes2030July 17, 2019
Liverpool City Region Combined Authority88%Yes2040April 28, 2019
Sefton Metropolitan Borough Council88%Yes2030July 18, 2019
Cheshire West and Chester Council87%Yes2030May 21, 2019
Knowsley Metropolitan Borough Council87%Yes2040Jan. 29, 2020
Halton Borough Council86%YesNo targetOct. 16, 2019

These councils are the most similar to Denbighshire 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
Folkestone and Hythe District Council95%Yes2030July 24, 2019
Rossendale Borough Council94%No2030Sept. 25, 2019
Norfolk County Council93%No2030No
Isle of Anglesey County Council92%Yes2030Sept. 8, 2020
Allerdale Borough Council92%Yes2030Sept. 25, 2019
Breckland District Council91%Yes2035Sept. 19, 2019
North Devon Council91%Yes2030July 24, 2019
Rother District Council91%No2030Sept. 16, 2019
Dover District Council89%Yes2030Nov. 4, 2019
Thurrock Council89%No2022Oct. 23, 2019

These councils are the most similar to Denbighshire 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
Broadland District Council97%No2050No
Cumbria County Council96%Yes2050No
East Lothian Council94%No2045Aug. 27, 2019
Northumberland Council94%Yes2030June 11, 2019
West Oxfordshire District Council94%Yes2030June 26, 2019
Chichester District Council93%Yes2025July 9, 2019
South Oxfordshire District Council93%Yes2025April 11, 2019
North West Leicestershire District Council92%Yes2030June 25, 2019
Winchester City Council92%Yes2024June 5, 2019
East Riding of Yorkshire Council91%No2050Feb. 24, 2021

Features

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

Powers & Responsibilities

Denbighshire 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

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

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    Cite this page

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

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