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Ipswich Borough Council

Declarations & pledges

Climate emergency declaration

This council declared a climate emergency on July 9, 2019.

Council only pledge for 2030

“Ipswich Borough Council declare a Climate Emergency and that the Council starts working towards becoming carbon neutral by 2030.”

Climate documents

Last update: March 16, 2022
2020 – 2030 Climate Change Strategy And Action Plan

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

SectionIpswich Borough CouncilAverage district council
Total score51%43%
Section 1 Governance, development and funding
13/21
9.4/21
Section 2 Mitigation and adaptation
6/18
8.1/18
Section 3 Commitment and integration
4/7
3.8/7
Section 4 Community, engagement and communications
8/9
4.7/9
Section 5 Measuring and setting emissions targets
3/5
2.6/5
Section 6 Co-benefits
2/4
1.9/4
Section 7 Diversity and inclusion
0/5
0.5/5
Section 8 Education, skills and training
2/5
1.5/5
Section 9 Ecological emergency
2/4
1.8/4

Emissions data

361.1 ktCO2

Total 2020 emissions

2.7 tCO2

per person

9.0 ktCO2

per km2

46%

Domestic

27%

Transport

10%

Industry

9%

Commercial

7%

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 Ipswich Borough 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
Norwich City Council88%Yes2030Jan. 29, 2019
London Borough of Enfield88%No2030July 8, 2019
Hastings Borough Council86%Yes2030Feb. 13, 2019
Southend-on-Sea Borough Council86%No2030July 18, 2019
Brighton and Hove City Council84%Yes2030Dec. 13, 2018
London Borough of Croydon84%YesNo targetJuly 15, 2019
Luton Borough Council84%Yes2040Jan. 13, 2020
Medway Council82%Yes2050April 25, 2019
Coventry City Council80%NoNo targetJune 18, 2019
Worthing Borough Council80%YesJuly 18, 2019

These councils are the most similar to Ipswich Borough 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
Brighton and Hove City Council92%Yes2030Dec. 13, 2018
Watford Borough Council92%No2030July 9, 2019
Luton Borough Council91%Yes2040Jan. 13, 2020
Reading Borough Council91%Yes2030Feb. 26, 2019
Worthing Borough Council91%YesJuly 18, 2019
London Borough of Sutton90%No2045July 22, 2019
London Borough of Croydon90%YesNo targetJuly 15, 2019
Greater London Authority89%YesDec. 1, 2019
Rushmoor Borough Council89%Yes2030June 20, 2019
Hastings Borough Council89%Yes2030Feb. 13, 2019

Read more about how we calculate this.

Council nameSimilarityHas planCarbon Neutral byDeclared emergency
Tendring District Council98%Yes2030Aug. 6, 2019
Mid Suffolk District Council97%Yes2030July 25, 2019
Babergh District Council97%Yes2030July 23, 2019
East Suffolk Council96%No2030July 24, 2019
Colchester Borough Council96%Yes2030July 17, 2019
South Norfolk District Council94%NoNo targetNo
Maldon District Council94%No2030Feb. 4, 2021
Braintree District Council93%Yes2030July 22, 2019
Rochford District Council93%Yes2030No
West Suffolk Council93%No2030Sept. 19, 2019

These councils are the most similar to Ipswich Borough 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
Plymouth City Council95%Yes2030March 18, 2019
Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council91%NoNo targetJuly 6, 2020
City of Lincoln Council90%Yes2030July 23, 2019
Norwich City Council89%Yes2030Jan. 29, 2019
Bristol City Council89%Yes2025Nov. 13, 2018
London Borough of Enfield88%No2030July 8, 2019
Newcastle-upon-Tyne City Council87%Yes2030April 3, 2019
Derby City Council86%Yes2050May 23, 2019
Greater Manchester Combined Authority83%No2038July 26, 2019
Coventry City Council83%NoNo targetJune 18, 2019

These councils are the most similar to Ipswich Borough 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
Stevenage Borough Council100%No2030June 12, 2019
Gosport Borough Council100%Yes2050No
Worthing Borough Council100%YesJuly 18, 2019
London Borough of Richmond upon Thames99%Yes2030July 9, 2019
Derby City Council99%Yes2050May 23, 2019
Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council99%NoNo targetJuly 6, 2020
Plymouth City Council99%Yes2030March 18, 2019
Brighton and Hove City Council99%Yes2030Dec. 13, 2018
Kingston-upon-Hull City Council99%No2030March 21, 2019
West Midlands Combined Authority98%No2041June 28, 2019

Features

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

Clear communication

Powers & Responsibilities

Ipswich Borough 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

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

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    Cite this page

    mySociety, Climate Emergency UK (2023). CAPE: Ipswich Borough Council. Available at: http://cape.mysociety.org/councils/ipswich-borough-council/ [Accessed 26 Mar 2023].

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