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Fife Council

Declarations & pledges

Climate emergency declaration

This council declared a climate emergency on Sept. 26, 2019.

Council only pledge for 2045

“It is Fife Council’s ambition to work with local and national partners to achieve the latest climate change targets, requiring Fife to achieve a net zero emissions target by 2045.”

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

Fife Council was a top performer amongst single tier councils, in the Education, skills and training section.

SectionFife CouncilAverage single tier council
Total score70%50%
Section 1 Governance, development and funding
15/21
10.3/21
Section 2 Mitigation and adaptation
15/18
9.0/18
Section 3 Commitment and integration
4/7
4.1/7
Section 4 Community, engagement and communications
6/9
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
2/5
0.9/5
Section 8 · Top performer Education, skills and training
5/5
2.3/5
Section 9 Ecological emergency
1/4
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 Fife Council’s projects

41

Projects

18.0 ktCO2 per year

Total annual emissions savings

£3,925,737

Total capital cost

Emissions data

1583.9 ktCO2

Total 2020 emissions

4.2 tCO2

per person

1.2 ktCO2

per km2

36%

Domestic

27%

Transport

27%

Industry

5%

Commercial

3%

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 Fife 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
South Lanarkshire Council82%NoNo targetSept. 25, 2019
West Lothian Council82%NoNo targetSept. 24, 2019
Wyre Council80%Yes2030July 11, 2019
North Lanarkshire Council80%Yes2030June 20, 2019
Angus Council79%YesNo targetSept. 5, 2019
Darlington Borough Council79%Yes2050July 18, 2019
South Ayrshire Council79%No2045No
Falkirk Council78%Yes2030Aug. 26, 2019
Midlothian Council78%No2030Dec. 17, 2019
Chorley Council78%Yes2030Nov. 19, 2019

These councils are the most similar to Fife 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
Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council88%Yes2030No
Bridgend County Borough Council87%No2030July 22, 2022
Darlington Borough Council86%Yes2050July 18, 2019
North East Derbyshire District Council86%Yes2030July 8, 2019
Hyndburn Borough Council86%No2030Sept. 19, 2019
Bolsover District Council86%YesNo targetNo
Lancashire County Council85%No2030Feb. 28, 2019
Amber Valley Borough Council85%Yes2030July 24, 2019
Derbyshire County Council85%Yes2032No
Pendle Borough Council85%Yes2030July 11, 2019
Council nameSimilarityHas planCarbon Neutral byDeclared emergency
Dundee City Council96%Yes2045June 24, 2019
City of Edinburgh Council95%Yes2030Feb. 7, 2019
Midlothian Council94%No2030Dec. 17, 2019
East Lothian Council93%No2045Aug. 27, 2019
West Lothian Council92%NoNo targetSept. 24, 2019
Angus Council92%YesNo targetSept. 5, 2019
Clackmannanshire Council91%NoNo targetAug. 19, 2021
Falkirk Council90%Yes2030Aug. 26, 2019
Perth and Kinross Council89%No2045No
Scottish Borders Council89%Yes2045Sept. 5, 2020

These councils are the most similar to Fife 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
Nottinghamshire County Council97%No2030May 27, 2021
Wyre Council97%Yes2030July 11, 2019
East Staffordshire Borough Council96%Yes2040Aug. 17, 2020
North Northamptonshire Council94%Yes2030July 28, 2021
West Lindsey District Council94%Yes2050No
Worcestershire County Council94%Yes2030July 15, 2021
South Lanarkshire Council93%NoNo targetSept. 25, 2019
West Lancashire Borough Council93%Yes2030July 17, 2019
West of England Combined Authority93%Yes2030July 1, 2019
Bedford Borough Council93%Yes2030March 5, 2019

These councils are the most similar to Fife 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
Bedford Borough Council98%Yes2030March 5, 2019
Scarborough Borough Council98%No2030Jan. 7, 2019
Oxfordshire County Council98%No2030April 2, 2019
West Berkshire Council96%No2030July 2, 2019
Stafford Borough Council95%No2040July 23, 2019
High Peak Borough Council95%Yes2030Oct. 15, 2019
East Hampshire District Council95%No2050July 18, 2019
Hart District Council95%Yes2040Sept. 1, 2019
West Northamptonshire Council95%NoNo targetNo
Warwickshire County Council95%Yes2030July 25, 2019

Features

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

Powers & Responsibilities

Fife 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

    fife.gov.uk
    Fife Council’s official homepage.
    @FifeCouncil
    Fife Council’s Twitter account.
    Tyndall Centre Carbon Budget report
    Check Fife 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: Fife Council. Available at: http://cape.mysociety.org/councils/fife-council/ [Accessed 24 Mar 2023].

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