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Greater London Authority

Declarations & pledges

Climate emergency declaration

This council declared a climate emergency on Dec. 1, 2019.

Climate pledges

We haven’t checked whether this council has made any climate pledges yet, but we will soon. If you’ve already found one, let us know!

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

SectionGreater London AuthorityAverage combined authority council
Total score66%48%
Section 1 Governance, development and funding
10/21
9.5/21
Section 2 Mitigation and adaptation
12/18
9.4/18
Section 3 Commitment and integration
4/7
2.2/7
Section 4 Community, engagement and communications
8/9
5.0/9
Section 5 Measuring and setting emissions targets
4/5
3.0/5
Section 6 Co-benefits
4/4
2.6/4
Section 7 Diversity and inclusion
3/5
1.1/5
Section 8 Education, skills and training
2/5
2.5/5
Section 9 Ecological emergency
3/4
1.8/4

Emissions data

25432.7 ktCO2

Total 2020 emissions

2.8 tCO2

per person

15.9 ktCO2

per km2

39%

Domestic

29%

Transport

17%

Commercial

8%

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 Greater London Authority 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
London Borough of Ealing89%Yes2030April 2, 2019
London Borough of Croydon88%YesNo targetJuly 15, 2019
London Borough of Redbridge88%Yes2050June 20, 2019
Royal Borough of Greenwich87%Yes2030June 26, 2019
Reading Borough Council87%Yes2030Feb. 26, 2019
Watford Borough Council86%No2030July 9, 2019
Luton Borough Council86%Yes2040Jan. 13, 2020
Portsmouth City Council86%No2030March 19, 2019
Southampton City Council86%Yes2030Sept. 18, 2019
London Borough of Hounslow86%Yes2030No

These councils are the most similar to Greater London Authority 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
Brighton and Hove City Council93%Yes2030Dec. 13, 2018
Bristol City Council92%Yes2025Nov. 13, 2018
London Borough of Wandsworth91%Yes2050July 17, 2019
Coventry City Council91%NoNo targetJune 18, 2019
London Borough of Hounslow91%Yes2030No
London Borough of Brent91%No2030July 8, 2019
Reading Borough Council90%Yes2030Feb. 26, 2019
Ipswich Borough Council89%Yes2030July 9, 2019
Watford Borough Council89%No2030July 9, 2019
Southampton City Council89%Yes2030Sept. 18, 2019
Council nameSimilarityHas planCarbon Neutral byDeclared emergency
City of London100%No2027No
Westminster City Council99%Yes2030Sept. 18, 2019
London Borough of Islington99%Yes2030June 27, 2019
London Borough of Lambeth99%Yes2030Jan. 23, 2019
London Borough of Southwark99%No2050March 27, 2019
London Borough of Camden99%Yes2030April 8, 2019
Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea99%Yes2030Oct. 1, 2019
London Borough of Hackney99%Yes2040June 28, 2019
London Borough of Wandsworth99%Yes2050July 17, 2019
London Borough of Tower Hamlets99%No2025July 17, 2019

These councils are the most similar to Greater London Authority 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
London Borough of Croydon89%YesNo targetJuly 15, 2019
London Borough of Ealing87%Yes2030April 2, 2019
London Borough of Redbridge84%Yes2050June 20, 2019
Reading Borough Council83%Yes2030Feb. 26, 2019
Southampton City Council81%Yes2030Sept. 18, 2019
Royal Borough of Greenwich80%Yes2030June 26, 2019
Portsmouth City Council79%No2030March 19, 2019
Coventry City Council78%NoNo targetJune 18, 2019
Luton Borough Council77%Yes2040Jan. 13, 2020
Bristol City Council76%Yes2025Nov. 13, 2018

These councils are the most similar to Greater London Authority 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
London Borough of Barking and Dagenham98%No2030Jan. 30, 2020
London Borough of Redbridge98%Yes2050June 20, 2019
London Borough of Merton98%No2030July 10, 2019
London Borough of Ealing98%Yes2030April 2, 2019
Portsmouth City Council97%No2030March 19, 2019
Royal Borough of Greenwich97%Yes2030June 26, 2019
Southampton City Council95%Yes2030Sept. 18, 2019
London Borough of Harrow95%Yes2030July 18, 2019
Luton Borough Council95%Yes2040Jan. 13, 2020
London Borough of Hounslow94%Yes2030No

Features

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

Powers & Responsibilities

The Greater London Authority has 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
    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.

    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.

    Read more about English local authority powers in the UK100 Power Shift report.

    More about this council

    london.gov.uk
    Greater London Authority’s official homepage.
    Tyndall Centre Carbon Budget report
    Check Greater London Authority’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 Greater London Authority’s climate performance, and actions you can take.

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    Cite this page

    mySociety, Climate Emergency UK (2023). CAPE: Greater London Authority. Available at: http://cape.mysociety.org/councils/greater-london-authority/ [Accessed 26 Mar 2023].

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