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Essex County Council

Declarations & pledges

Climate emergency declaration

We don’t think this council has declared a climate emergency – let us know if it has!

Council only pledge for 2030

“In today’s meeting, ECC’s Cabinet agreed to a range of climate mitigation initiatives, that include: a policy to transform its estate to have net zero greenhouse emissions by 2030.”

Climate documents

Last update: Feb. 14, 2023
Essex County Council’s Response To Net Zero: Making Essex Carbon Neutral

Action Plan · PDF · Approved · Whole Area

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Essex County Council’s Response To Net Zero: Making Essex Carbon Neutral

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

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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

Essex County Council scored zero points in this assessment. This is because the council either didn’t have any published plans at the time of the assessment, or the plans didn’t qualify.

SectionEssex County CouncilAverage county council
Total score0%40%
Section 1 Governance, development and funding
0/21
8.4/21
Section 2 Mitigation and adaptation
0/18
6.6/18
Section 3 Commitment and integration
0/5
2.7/5
Section 4 Community, engagement and communications
0/9
4.7/9
Section 5 Measuring and setting emissions targets
0/5
2.4/5
Section 6 Co-benefits
0/4
1.9/4
Section 7 Diversity and inclusion
0/5
0.2/5
Section 8 Education, skills and training
0/5
1.7/5
Section 9 Ecological emergency
0/4
1.5/4

Emissions data

5593.5 ktCO2

Total 2020 emissions

3.7 tCO2

per person

1.5 ktCO2

per km2

40%

Transport

37%

Domestic

10%

Industry

7%

Commercial

4%

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. Data has been combined from constituent local authorities.

These councils are the most similar to Essex 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
West Sussex County Council92%Yes2030April 5, 2019
Lewes District Council91%Yes2030July 15, 2019
Kent County Council90%Yes2030May 23, 2019
East Sussex County Council90%Yes2050Oct. 15, 2019
Bedford Borough Council89%Yes2030March 5, 2019
Colchester Borough Council89%Yes2030July 17, 2019
Maidstone Borough Council89%Yes2030April 10, 2019
Warwickshire County Council89%Yes2030July 25, 2019
Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council86%Yes2025July 18, 2019
Braintree District Council86%Yes2030July 22, 2019

These councils are the most similar to Essex 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 Sussex County Council96%Yes2030April 5, 2019
Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council95%Yes2025July 18, 2019
Hampshire County Council95%No2050June 17, 2019
Mid Sussex District Council95%YesNo targetNo
Lewes District Council93%Yes2030July 15, 2019
East Hertfordshire District Council93%Yes2030No
Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council92%Yes2030Oct. 8, 2019
Warwickshire County Council92%Yes2030July 25, 2019
Worcestershire County Council91%Yes2030July 15, 2021
East Sussex County Council90%Yes2050Oct. 15, 2019

Read more about how we calculate this.

Council nameSimilarityHas planCarbon Neutral byDeclared emergency
Basildon Borough Council99%Yes2030No
Brentwood Borough Council99%No2040No
Chelmsford City Council99%Yes2030July 16, 2019
Thurrock Council98%No2022Oct. 23, 2019
London Borough of Havering97%YesNo targetNo
Castle Point Borough Council97%NoNo targetNo
Gravesham Borough Council97%No2030June 26, 2019
Dartford Borough Council97%NoNo targetOct. 7, 2019
Epping Forest District Council96%Yes2030Sept. 19, 2019
Medway Council96%Yes2050April 25, 2019

These councils are the most similar to Essex 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
Colchester Borough Council97%Yes2030July 17, 2019
Staffordshire County Council97%Yes2050July 25, 2019
Angus Council96%YesNo targetSept. 5, 2019
North East Derbyshire District Council96%Yes2030July 8, 2019
Amber Valley Borough Council96%Yes2030July 24, 2019
Maidstone Borough Council96%Yes2030April 10, 2019
Flintshire County Council95%YesNo targetNo
Fylde Borough Council95%NoNo targetNo
Wychavon District Council95%Yes2050No
Bedford Borough Council94%Yes2030March 5, 2019

These councils are the most similar to Essex 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
Cheshire West and Chester Council99%Yes2030May 21, 2019
Derbyshire County Council99%Yes2032No
Kent County Council98%Yes2030May 23, 2019
Maidstone Borough Council98%Yes2030April 10, 2019
Epping Forest District Council97%Yes2030Sept. 19, 2019
West Sussex County Council97%Yes2030April 5, 2019
New Forest District Council97%NoNo targetNov. 6, 2021
Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council97%Yes2025July 18, 2019
Chorley Council96%Yes2030Nov. 19, 2019
Staffordshire County Council95%Yes2050July 25, 2019

Powers & Responsibilities

Essex County Council is a County Council, 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
    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.

    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.

    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 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

    essex.gov.uk
    Essex County Council’s official homepage.

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    Cite this page

    mySociety, Climate Emergency UK (2023). CAPE: Essex County Council. Available at: http://cape.mysociety.org/councils/essex-county-council/ [Accessed 2 Apr 2023].

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