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East Lothian Council

Declarations & pledges

Climate emergency declaration

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

Council only pledge for 2045

“East Lothian Council will take urgent action to make all our Council Services Net Zero as soon as reasonably practicable or in any case by 2045 and will lobby, support and work with government, all relevant agencies, partners and communities to fulfil this commitment.”

Climate documents

Last update: June 21, 2022
Climate Change Strategy Annual Update, January 2021

Progress Report · PDF

Climate Change Strategy 2020–2025

Climate Strategy · PDF

Show more climate strategy documents
East Lothian Council Climate Strategy

HTML · We no longer hold a copy of this document

East Lothian Council Document

HTML · 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

East Lothian Council was a top performer amongst single tier councils, in two sections including Mitigation and adaptation.

SectionEast Lothian CouncilAverage single tier council
Total score70%50%
Section 1 Governance, development and funding
12/21
10.3/21
Section 2 · Top performer Mitigation and adaptation
18/18
9.0/18
Section 3 · Top performer Commitment and integration
7/7
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
3/4
2.2/4
Section 7 Diversity and inclusion
0/5
0.9/5
Section 8 Education, skills and training
4/5
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 East Lothian Council’s projects

32

Projects

4.9 ktCO2 per year

Total annual emissions savings

£1,712,660

Total capital cost

Emissions data

437.4 ktCO2

Total 2020 emissions

4.1 tCO2

per person

0.6 ktCO2

per km2

38%

Transport

36%

Domestic

13%

Industry

5%

Public Sector

5%

Commercial

3%

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 East Lothian 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
Angus Council77%YesNo targetSept. 5, 2019
Stirling Council77%NoNo targetOct. 3, 2019
North Yorkshire Council77%NoNo
West Lancashire Borough Council76%Yes2030July 17, 2019
East Riding of Yorkshire Council75%No2050Feb. 24, 2021
Fife Council74%Yes2045Sept. 26, 2019
Wychavon District Council74%Yes2050No
South Staffordshire Council74%NoNo targetSept. 10, 2019
Chorley Council73%Yes2030Nov. 19, 2019
Stafford Borough Council72%No2040July 23, 2019

These councils are the most similar to East Lothian 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
Vale of Glamorgan Council89%Yes2030July 29, 2019
Stafford Borough Council89%No2040July 23, 2019
West Oxfordshire District Council88%Yes2030June 26, 2019
Wiltshire Council88%No2030Feb. 26, 2019
North of Tyne Combined Authority87%YesNo targetMay 7, 2019
Gloucestershire County Council87%Yes2030May 15, 2019
Wychavon District Council87%Yes2050No
North Kesteven District Council86%No2030July 11, 2019
Denbighshire County Council85%No2030July 2, 2019
Cherwell District Council85%No2030July 22, 2019
Council nameSimilarityHas planCarbon Neutral byDeclared emergency
Midlothian Council94%No2030Dec. 17, 2019
Scottish Borders Council94%Yes2045Sept. 5, 2020
Fife Council92%Yes2045Sept. 26, 2019
City of Edinburgh Council92%Yes2030Feb. 7, 2019
Dundee City Council90%Yes2045June 24, 2019
West Lothian Council87%NoNo targetSept. 24, 2019
Angus Council86%YesNo targetSept. 5, 2019
Northumberland Council85%Yes2030June 11, 2019
Clackmannanshire Council85%NoNo targetAug. 19, 2021
Falkirk Council84%Yes2030Aug. 26, 2019

These councils are the most similar to East Lothian 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
Scottish Borders Council99%Yes2045Sept. 5, 2020
Warwickshire County Council98%Yes2030July 25, 2019
High Peak Borough Council98%Yes2030Oct. 15, 2019
Staffordshire Moorlands District Council97%Yes2030July 10, 2019
Fylde Borough Council95%NoNo targetNo
North Yorkshire Council95%NoNo
South Ribble Borough Council94%Yes2030July 24, 2019
East Riding of Yorkshire Council93%No2050Feb. 24, 2021
Angus Council92%YesNo targetSept. 5, 2019
Staffordshire County Council92%No2050July 25, 2019

These councils are the most similar to East Lothian 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
West Oxfordshire District Council100%Yes2030June 26, 2019
Winchester City Council98%Yes2024June 5, 2019
East Ayrshire Council96%No2030No
Cumberland Council94%NoNo
Denbighshire County Council94%No2030July 2, 2019
Chichester District Council93%Yes2025July 9, 2019
Cornwall Council (Unitary)92%Yes2030Jan. 22, 2019
Westmorland and Furness Council92%NoNo
North Devon Council92%Yes2030July 24, 2019
Broadland District Council91%No2050No

Powers & Responsibilities

East Lothian 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

    eastlothian.gov.uk
    East Lothian Council’s official homepage.
    @ELCouncil
    East Lothian Council’s Twitter account.
    Tyndall Centre Carbon Budget report
    Check East Lothian 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: East Lothian Council. Available at: http://cape.mysociety.org/councils/east-lothian-council/ [Accessed 27 May 2023].

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