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Dumfries and Galloway Council

Declarations & pledges

Climate emergency declaration

This council declared a climate emergency on June 27, 2019.

Whole area pledge for 2025

“We recognise the challanges ahead to tackle climate change and, whilst we have already made significant strides towars achievement of a regional net zero carbon status, we will seek to achieve this outcome by the year 2025 and, wherever possible embrace opporuntities to accelerate our target date.”

Climate documents

Last update: Dec. 5, 2022
Strategic Plan - Route Map For Carbon Neutral In Dumfries And Galloway

Action Plan · PDF

Show more action plan documents
Strategic Plan - Route Map For Carbon Neutral In Dumfries And Galloway

Action Plan · PDF · We no longer hold a copy of this document

Dumfries And Galloway Council Climate Emergency Declaration

Pre-Plan · PDF

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

SectionDumfries and Galloway CouncilAverage single tier council
Total score20%50%
Section 1 Governance, development and funding
14/21
10.3/21
Section 2 Mitigation and adaptation
0/18
9.0/18
Section 3 Commitment and integration
1/7
4.1/7
Section 4 Community, engagement and communications
1/9
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
1/5
2.3/5
Section 9 Ecological emergency
0/4
2.1/4

Emissions reduction projects

Local authorities in Scotland are required to publish yearly data on their compliance with their climate change duties – including the emissions reduction projects they are undertaking.

See all of Dumfries and Galloway Council’s projects

35

Projects

1.0 ktCO2 per year

Total annual emissions savings

£34,835,000

Total capital cost

Emissions data

864.4 ktCO2

Total 2020 emissions

5.8 tCO2

per person

0.1 ktCO2

per km2

29%

Domestic

28%

Transport

18%

Agriculture

16%

Industry

6%

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 Dumfries and Galloway 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
Scottish Borders Council81%Yes2045Sept. 5, 2020
Isle of Anglesey County Council78%Yes2030Sept. 8, 2020
Powys County Council76%No2030July 30, 2020
Ceredigion County Council75%Yes2030March 5, 2020
Carmarthenshire County Council72%Yes2030Feb. 20, 2019
Argyll and Bute Council71%Yes2045No
East Ayrshire Council71%No2030No
Pembrokeshire County Council71%Yes2030May 9, 2019
Shropshire Council - Unitary70%No2030May 16, 2019
Cumbria County Council70%Yes2050No

These councils are the most similar to Dumfries and Galloway 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 Council84%Yes2045Sept. 5, 2020
Ceredigion County Council79%Yes2030March 5, 2020
Carmarthenshire County Council78%Yes2030Feb. 20, 2019
Isle of Anglesey County Council77%Yes2030Sept. 8, 2020
Powys County Council77%No2030July 30, 2020
West Devon Borough Council71%Yes2030May 21, 2019
Torridge District Council70%Yes2030July 1, 2019
Pembrokeshire County Council69%Yes2030May 9, 2019
Richmondshire District Council67%Yes2030July 23, 2019
East Ayrshire Council65%No2030No
Council nameSimilarityHas planCarbon Neutral byDeclared emergency
East Ayrshire Council91%No2030No
South Lanarkshire Council91%NoNo targetSept. 25, 2019
South Ayrshire Council89%No2045No
Allerdale Borough Council88%Yes2030Sept. 25, 2019
East Renfrewshire Council87%No2040Aug. 13, 2020
North Lanarkshire Council86%Yes2030June 20, 2019
Glasgow City Council86%Yes2030May 16, 2019
Copeland Borough Council86%Yes2050No
West Lothian Council85%NoNo targetSept. 24, 2019
East Dunbartonshire Council85%Yes2045No

These councils are the most similar to Dumfries and Galloway 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
Breckland District Council96%Yes2035Sept. 19, 2019
Somerset County Council96%No2030Feb. 20, 2019
Rother District Council94%No2030Sept. 16, 2019
Shropshire Council - Unitary94%No2030May 16, 2019
Mendip District Council93%Yes2030Feb. 25, 2019
South Somerset District Council93%Yes2023May 21, 2019
North Devon Council92%Yes2030July 24, 2019
Conwy County Borough Council92%No2030May 9, 2019
Herefordshire Council92%Yes2030March 8, 2019
Somerset West and Taunton Council92%Yes2030Feb. 21, 2019

These councils are the most similar to Dumfries and Galloway 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
Forest of Dean District Council95%Yes2030Dec. 6, 2018
Mid Suffolk District Council95%Yes2030July 25, 2019
Ryedale District Council95%No2050Oct. 10, 2019
Perth and Kinross Council94%No2045No
The Moray Council94%Yes2030June 27, 2019
Scottish Borders Council94%Yes2045Sept. 5, 2020
The Highland Council93%No2025May 9, 2019
Aberdeenshire Council93%No2045No
West Devon Borough Council91%Yes2030May 21, 2019
South Norfolk District Council90%NoNo targetNo

Powers & Responsibilities

Dumfries and Galloway 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

    dumgal.gov.uk
    Dumfries and Galloway Council’s official homepage.
    @DGCouncil
    Dumfries and Galloway Council’s Twitter account.
    Tyndall Centre Carbon Budget report
    Check Dumfries and Galloway Council’s ‘carbon budget’ – their share towards meeting the UK’s Paris agreement targets.

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    Cite this page

    mySociety, Climate Emergency UK (2023). CAPE: Dumfries and Galloway Council. Available at: http://cape.mysociety.org/councils/dumfries-and-galloway-council/ [Accessed 1 Apr 2023].

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