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Dundee City Council

Declarations & pledges

Climate emergency declaration

This council declared a climate emergency on June 24, 2019.

Whole area pledge for 2045

“The Climate Action Plan has been prepared to set out a first set of ambitious actions in a long-term pathway to support Dundee in a just transition to a net-zero and climate resilient future by 2045 at the latest.”

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

SectionDundee City CouncilAverage single tier council
Total score63%50%
Section 1 Governance, development and funding
11/21
10.3/21
Section 2 Mitigation and adaptation
14/18
9.0/18
Section 3 Commitment and integration
4/7
4.1/7
Section 4 Community, engagement and communications
5/9
5.1/9
Section 5 Measuring and setting emissions targets
4/5
2.9/5
Section 6 Co-benefits
4/4
2.2/4
Section 7 Diversity and inclusion
3/5
0.9/5
Section 8 Education, skills and training
2/5
2.3/5
Section 9 Ecological emergency
3/4
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 Dundee City Council’s projects

38

Projects

6.7 ktCO2 per year

Total annual emissions savings

£18,916,958

Total capital cost

Emissions data

584.7 ktCO2

Total 2020 emissions

3.9 tCO2

per person

9.4 ktCO2

per km2

33%

Domestic

28%

Transport

21%

Commercial

11%

Public Sector

7%

Industry

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 Dundee City 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
Sefton Metropolitan Borough Council76%Yes2030July 18, 2019
St Helens Metropolitan Borough Council70%Yes2040June 10, 2019
Newcastle-upon-Tyne City Council70%Yes2030April 3, 2019
Preston City Council68%No2030April 18, 2019
Glasgow City Council65%Yes2030May 16, 2019
West Dunbartonshire Council65%Yes2045May 29, 2019
Liverpool City Region Combined Authority63%Yes2040April 28, 2019
Chesterfield Borough Council61%No2030July 17, 2019
Renfrewshire Council61%No2030June 27, 2019
Salford City Council60%No2038July 17, 2019

These councils are the most similar to Dundee City 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
Sefton Metropolitan Borough Council79%Yes2030July 18, 2019
Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea72%Yes2030Oct. 1, 2019
St Helens Metropolitan Borough Council71%Yes2040June 10, 2019
Preston City Council65%No2030April 18, 2019
Stevenage Borough Council64%No2030June 12, 2019
Newcastle-upon-Tyne City Council63%Yes2030April 3, 2019
Torbay Council63%Yes2030June 19, 2019
West Suffolk Council62%No2030Sept. 19, 2019
Liverpool City Region Combined Authority59%Yes2040April 28, 2019
Slough Borough Council58%YesNo targetNo
Council nameSimilarityHas planCarbon Neutral byDeclared emergency
Angus Council96%YesNo targetSept. 5, 2019
Fife Council96%Yes2045Sept. 26, 2019
East Lothian Council91%No2045Aug. 27, 2019
City of Edinburgh Council90%Yes2030Feb. 7, 2019
Midlothian Council90%No2030Dec. 17, 2019
Perth and Kinross Council89%No2045No
Clackmannanshire Council88%NoNo targetAug. 19, 2021
West Lothian Council88%NoNo targetSept. 24, 2019
Aberdeenshire Council87%No2045No
Falkirk Council87%Yes2030Aug. 26, 2019

These councils are the most similar to Dundee City 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
Sheffield City Council92%Yes2050Feb. 6, 2019
Leeds City Council91%No2030March 27, 2019
Derby City Council91%Yes2050May 23, 2019
Wigan Metropolitan Borough Council89%Yes2038July 17, 2019
Sefton Metropolitan Borough Council88%Yes2030July 18, 2019
West Yorkshire Combined Authority86%No2038June 27, 2019
Mansfield District Council85%No2040March 5, 2019
Newport City Council84%Yes2030Nov. 23, 2021
Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council83%YesNo targetNo
Norwich City Council83%Yes2030Jan. 29, 2019

These councils are the most similar to Dundee City 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
Tamworth Borough Council99%No2050Oct. 19, 2019
Cheltenham Borough Council99%Yes2030Feb. 18, 2019
Crawley Borough Council99%Yes2040July 17, 2019
Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Borough Council99%Yes2030July 16, 2019
Rushmoor Borough Council99%Yes2030June 20, 2019
Belfast City Council99%YesNo targetOct. 1, 2019
Oadby and Wigston Borough Council99%No2030No
South Tyneside Council99%No2030July 18, 2019
Eastbourne Borough Council99%Yes2030July 10, 2019
Middlesbrough Borough Council99%No2029Sept. 4, 2019

Features

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

Powers & Responsibilities

Dundee City 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

    dundeecity.gov.uk
    Dundee City Council’s official homepage.
    @DundeeCouncil
    Dundee City Council’s Twitter account.
    Tyndall Centre Carbon Budget report
    Check Dundee City 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: Dundee City Council. Available at: http://cape.mysociety.org/councils/dundee-city-council/ [Accessed 27 May 2023].

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