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Harlow Council

Declarations & pledges

Climate emergency declaration

This council declared a climate emergency on July 11, 2019.

Whole area pledge for 2030

“Aim to make London borough of Harrow carbon neutral by 2030, taking into account both production and consumption of emissions.”

Climate documents

Last update: March 16, 2022
Report To: Cabinet Overview Working Group Date: 15 August 2019 Title: Climate Change Strategy

Climate Strategy · PDF · Council Only
Next Steps To Net Zero Carbon Reduction Plan April 2021 – March 2026

Action Plan · PDF · Approved · Council Only

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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

SectionHarlow CouncilAverage district council
Total score6%43%
Section 1 Governance, development and funding
2/21
9.4/21
Section 2 Mitigation and adaptation
0/18
8.1/18
Section 3 Commitment and integration
2/7
3.8/7
Section 4 Community, engagement and communications
0/9
4.7/9
Section 5 Measuring and setting emissions targets
0/5
2.6/5
Section 6 Co-benefits
0/4
1.9/4
Section 7 Diversity and inclusion
0/5
0.5/5
Section 8 Education, skills and training
0/5
1.5/5
Section 9 Ecological emergency
0/4
1.8/4

Emissions data

287.0 ktCO2

Total 2020 emissions

3.3 tCO2

per person

9.4 ktCO2

per km2

37%

Domestic

26%

Transport

22%

Industry

10%

Commercial

5%

Public Sector

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 Harlow 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
Crawley Borough Council86%Yes2040July 17, 2019
Stevenage Borough Council84%No2030June 12, 2019
London Borough of Hounslow83%Yes2030No
Broxbourne Borough Council79%NoNo targetNo
Reading Borough Council79%Yes2030Feb. 26, 2019
London Borough of Hillingdon77%Yes2030Jan. 16, 2020
London Borough of Ealing77%Yes2030April 2, 2019
London Borough of Croydon77%YesNo targetJuly 15, 2019
Eastbourne Borough Council76%Yes2030July 10, 2019
London Borough of Redbridge76%Yes2050June 20, 2019

These councils are the most similar to Harlow 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
Sheffield City Council95%Yes2050Feb. 6, 2019
West Midlands Combined Authority93%No2041June 28, 2019
Oldham Metropolitan Borough Council92%No2025Sept. 11, 2019
Greater Manchester Combined Authority92%No2038July 26, 2019
Tameside Metropolitan Borough Council92%No2038Feb. 24, 2020
Walsall Metropolitan Borough Council92%Yes2050Sept. 16, 2019
Rochdale Metropolitan Borough Council91%Yes2038July 17, 2019
Gloucester City Council90%Yes2030July 11, 2019
Wolverhampton City Council90%No2028July 17, 2019
Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Borough Council90%Yes2030July 16, 2019

Read more about how we calculate this.

Council nameSimilarityHas planCarbon Neutral byDeclared emergency
Epping Forest District Council99%Yes2030Sept. 19, 2019
East Hertfordshire District Council98%Yes2030No
Broxbourne Borough Council98%NoNo targetNo
London Borough of Redbridge97%Yes2050June 20, 2019
London Borough of Waltham Forest97%NoNo targetApril 25, 2019
London Borough of Enfield97%No2030July 8, 2019
London Borough of Barking and Dagenham97%No2030Jan. 30, 2020
Uttlesford District Council97%Yes2030July 30, 2019
London Borough of Havering97%YesNo targetNo
Brentwood Borough Council97%No2040No

These councils are the most similar to Harlow 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
Stevenage Borough Council93%No2030June 12, 2019
Crawley Borough Council89%Yes2040July 17, 2019
Slough Borough Council85%YesNo targetNo
London Borough of Hounslow82%Yes2030No
West Devon Borough Council81%Yes2030May 21, 2019
Comhairle nan Eilean Siar80%YesNo targetNo
Torridge District Council79%Yes2030July 1, 2019
Carmarthenshire County Council79%Yes2030Feb. 20, 2019
Ceredigion County Council79%Yes2030March 5, 2020
North Norfolk District Council77%Yes2030April 24, 2019

These councils are the most similar to Harlow 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
Exeter City Council100%Yes2030July 23, 2019
City of Lincoln Council100%Yes2030July 23, 2019
Stoke-on-Trent City Council100%NoNo targetJuly 4, 2019
Salford City Council99%No2038July 17, 2019
Walsall Metropolitan Borough Council99%Yes2050Sept. 16, 2019
Middlesbrough Borough Council99%No2029Sept. 4, 2019
Worcester City Council98%Yes2030July 16, 2019
Cambridge City Council98%Yes2030Feb. 21, 2019
Hastings Borough Council98%Yes2030Feb. 13, 2019
Crawley Borough Council98%Yes2040July 17, 2019

Powers & Responsibilities

Harlow Council is a Non-Metropolitan District, 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.

    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.

    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
    Waste collection

    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

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

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    Cite this page

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

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