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Durham County Council

Declarations & pledges

Climate emergency declaration

This council declared a climate emergency on Feb. 20, 2019.

Council only pledge for 2030

“Immediately adopt a new Durham County Council target of 60% [carbon reduction] by 2030(i) making significant progress towards making Durham County Council and County Durham carbon neutral taking into account both production and consumption emissions.”

Whole area pledge for 2050

“Investigate what further actions are necessary to make County Durham carbon neutral by 2050 and pledge to achieve this.”

Climate documents

Last update: Dec. 5, 2022
Climate Change Strategy And Emergency Response Plan 2022-24

Action Plan · PDF · Approved · Whole Area

Show more action plan documents
Climate Emergency Response: Action Plan, 2020–2022

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

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

SectionDurham County CouncilAverage single tier council
Total score58%50%
Section 1 Governance, development and funding
16/21
10.3/21
Section 2 Mitigation and adaptation
10/18
9.0/18
Section 3 Commitment and integration
6/7
4.1/7
Section 4 Community, engagement and communications
4/9
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
0/5
0.9/5
Section 8 Education, skills and training
2/5
2.3/5
Section 9 Ecological emergency
1/4
2.1/4

Emissions data

2017.2 ktCO2

Total 2020 emissions

3.8 tCO2

per person

0.9 ktCO2

per km2

42%

Domestic

31%

Transport

16%

Industry

5%

Commercial

5%

Public Sector

2%

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 Durham 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
North East Combined Authority82%NoNo targetNov. 5, 2019
Bolsover District Council81%YesNo targetNo
Copeland Borough Council79%Yes2050No
Denbighshire County Council76%No2030July 2, 2019
Lancaster City Council76%Yes2030Jan. 30, 2019
North of Tyne Combined Authority76%YesNo targetMay 7, 2019
Northumberland Council75%Yes2030June 11, 2019
North Lincolnshire Council75%Yes2030No
Calderdale Metropolitan Borough Council74%Yes2038Jan. 30, 2019
Rhondda Cynon Taf County Borough Council73%Yes2050No

These councils are the most similar to Durham 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
North East Combined Authority90%NoNo targetNov. 5, 2019
Darlington Borough Council89%Yes2050July 18, 2019
Lancashire County Council88%No2030Feb. 28, 2019
Calderdale Metropolitan Borough Council84%Yes2038Jan. 30, 2019
Surrey Heath Borough Council84%Yes2030Oct. 9, 2019
Chorley Council84%Yes2030Nov. 19, 2019
Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council84%Yes2030No
Hertsmere Borough Council83%Yes2050Sept. 18, 2019
Fylde Borough Council83%NoNo targetNo
South Lanarkshire Council83%NoNo targetSept. 25, 2019
Council nameSimilarityHas planCarbon Neutral byDeclared emergency
North East Combined Authority94%NoNo targetNov. 5, 2019
Gateshead Metropolitan Borough Council94%Yes2030May 23, 2019
Darlington Borough Council94%Yes2050July 18, 2019
Richmondshire District Council93%Yes2030July 23, 2019
Newcastle-upon-Tyne City Council93%Yes2030April 3, 2019
Sunderland City Council92%Yes2030March 27, 2019
North of Tyne Combined Authority92%YesNo targetMay 7, 2019
North Tyneside Metropolitan Borough Council91%Yes2050July 25, 2019
South Tyneside Council91%No2030July 18, 2019
Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council90%YesNo targetNo

These councils are the most similar to Durham 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
Scarborough Borough Council95%No2030Jan. 7, 2019
Neath Port Talbot County Borough Council95%NoNo targetSept. 28, 2022
Torfaen County Borough Council94%YesNo targetJune 25, 2019
Rhondda Cynon Taf County Borough Council94%Yes2050No
North East Combined Authority92%NoNo targetNov. 5, 2019
Swale Borough Council92%Yes2025June 26, 2019
East Lindsey District Council91%Yes2040No
Wakefield Metropolitan District Council90%Yes2030May 23, 2019
Calderdale Metropolitan Borough Council90%Yes2038Jan. 30, 2019
North Lanarkshire Council90%Yes2030June 20, 2019

These councils are the most similar to Durham 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
Bolsover District Council93%YesNo targetNo
Teignbridge District Council90%Yes2025April 18, 2019
South Staffordshire Council89%YesNo targetSept. 10, 2019
Cambridgeshire County Council89%Yes2050May 14, 2019
Barrow-in-Furness Borough Council87%No2037July 16, 2019
South Derbyshire District Council87%Yes2030June 27, 2019
Newark and Sherwood District Council87%Yes2035July 16, 2019
Central Bedfordshire Council87%No2030July 19, 2019
Great Yarmouth Borough Council86%NoNo targetNo
Rushcliffe Borough Council86%Yes2030March 7, 2019

Features

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

Powers & Responsibilities

Durham 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 English local authority powers in the UK100 Power Shift report.

    More about this council

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

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    Cite this page

    mySociety, Climate Emergency UK (2023). CAPE: Durham County Council. Available at: http://cape.mysociety.org/councils/durham-county-council/ [Accessed 22 Mar 2023].

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