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Isle of Wight Council

Declarations & pledges

Climate emergency declaration

This council declared a climate emergency on July 24, 2019.

Whole area pledge for 2030

“Aim of meeting net zero by 2030 in both the Council’s own operations and the wider Island area.”

Climate documents

Last update: March 16, 2022
Mission Zero Climate And Environment Strategy 2021-2040

Climate Strategy · PDF · Approved · Whole Area

Show more climate strategy documents
Isle of Wight Council Climate Strategy

PDF · We no longer hold a copy of this document

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

Isle of Wight Council was a top performer amongst single tier councils, in the Ecological emergency section.

SectionIsle of Wight CouncilAverage single tier council
Total score77%50%
Section 1 Governance, development and funding
12/21
10.3/21
Section 2 Mitigation and adaptation
17/18
9.0/18
Section 3 Commitment and integration
5/7
4.1/7
Section 4 Community, engagement and communications
7/9
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
3/5
0.9/5
Section 8 Education, skills and training
4/5
2.3/5
Section 9 · Top performer Ecological emergency
4/4
2.1/4

Emissions data

469.6 ktCO2

Total 2020 emissions

3.3 tCO2

per person

1.2 ktCO2

per km2

41%

Domestic

22%

Transport

17%

Industry

12%

Commercial

5%

Public Sector

3%

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 Isle of Wight 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
Folkestone and Hythe District Council76%No2030July 24, 2019
Dover District Council76%No2030Nov. 4, 2019
Arun District Council75%No2030Jan. 15, 2020
Wyre Forest District Council74%YesNo targetMay 22, 2019
Kent County Council73%Yes2030May 23, 2019
Cannock Chase District Council72%No2030July 17, 2019
Rhondda Cynon Taf County Borough Council72%Yes2050No
East Sussex County Council72%No2050Oct. 15, 2019
Gravesham Borough Council71%No2030June 26, 2019
Torfaen County Borough Council71%NoNo targetJune 25, 2019

These councils are the most similar to Isle of Wight 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
Chesterfield Borough Council85%No2030July 17, 2019
Gedling Borough Council85%Yes2030Nov. 20, 2019
Wirral Council84%No2030July 15, 2019
Kirklees Council84%Yes2038Jan. 16, 2019
Mansfield District Council83%No2040March 5, 2019
South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority83%No2040Nov. 7, 2019
Wakefield Metropolitan District Council81%No2030May 23, 2019
Torbay Council81%Yes2030June 19, 2019
Wigan Metropolitan Borough Council80%Yes2038July 17, 2019
Burnley Borough Council80%Yes2030July 10, 2019
Council nameSimilarityHas planCarbon Neutral byDeclared emergency
Gosport Borough Council97%Yes2050No
Fareham Borough Council97%Yes2030Oct. 24, 2019
Portsmouth City Council96%No2030March 19, 2019
Eastleigh Borough Council96%Yes2025July 18, 2019
Southampton City Council96%Yes2030Sept. 18, 2019
Havant Borough Council95%Yes2050No
Winchester City Council95%Yes2024June 5, 2019
New Forest District Council95%NoNo targetNov. 6, 2021
Hampshire County Council95%No2050June 17, 2019
Test Valley Borough Council93%Yes2050Sept. 4, 2019

These councils are the most similar to Isle of Wight 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
Cornwall Council (Unitary)94%Yes2030Jan. 22, 2019
Boston Borough Council93%NoNo targetJan. 20, 2020
Pembrokeshire County Council92%Yes2030May 9, 2019
Isle of Anglesey County Council90%Yes2030Sept. 8, 2020
King's Lynn and West Norfolk Borough Council89%Yes2050Feb. 4, 2020
Herefordshire Council89%Yes2030March 8, 2019
Denbighshire County Council87%No2030July 2, 2019
Folkestone and Hythe District Council87%No2030July 24, 2019
Breckland District Council86%Yes2035Sept. 19, 2019
Carmarthenshire County Council86%Yes2030Feb. 20, 2019

These councils are the most similar to Isle of Wight 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
North Northamptonshire Council98%Yes2030July 28, 2021
Tandridge District Council97%Yes2030Feb. 13, 2020
Hinckley and Bosworth Borough Council96%No2030July 16, 2019
Colchester Borough Council96%Yes2030July 17, 2019
Lichfield District Council96%NoNo targetDec. 10, 2019
Wrexham County Borough Council95%No2030Sept. 25, 2019
North Ayrshire Council95%No2030June 25, 2019
Nottinghamshire County Council95%No2030May 27, 2021
Wyre Council94%Yes2030July 11, 2019
Brentwood Borough Council94%No2040No

Features

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

Powers & Responsibilities

Isle of Wight 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 English local authority powers in the UK100 Power Shift report.

    More about this council

    iwight.com
    Isle of Wight Council’s official homepage.
    Tyndall Centre Carbon Budget report
    Check Isle of Wight 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 Isle of Wight Council’s climate performance, and actions you can take.

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    Cite this page

    mySociety, Climate Emergency UK (2023). CAPE: Isle of Wight Council. Available at: http://cape.mysociety.org/councils/isle-of-wight-council/ [Accessed 6 Jun 2023].

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