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Leeds City Council

Declarations & pledges

Climate emergency declaration

This council declared a climate emergency on March 27, 2019.

Whole area pledge for 2030

“To minimise energy demand and meet all heat and power requirements without increasing carbon emssions to allow Leeds to meet its climate emergency commitment of zero carbon by 2030.”

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

SectionLeeds City CouncilAverage single tier council
Total score71%50%
Section 1 Governance, development and funding
14/21
10.3/21
Section 2 Mitigation and adaptation
11/18
9.0/18
Section 3 Commitment and integration
5/7
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
3/5
0.9/5
Section 8 Education, skills and training
4/5
2.3/5
Section 9 Ecological emergency
3/4
2.1/4

Emissions data

2822.1 ktCO2

Total 2020 emissions

3.5 tCO2

per person

5.1 ktCO2

per km2

37%

Domestic

33%

Transport

13%

Industry

10%

Commercial

6%

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 Leeds City 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
Sheffield City Council90%Yes2050Feb. 6, 2019
West Yorkshire Combined Authority89%No2038June 27, 2019
Greater Manchester Combined Authority88%No2038July 26, 2019
Bolton Metropolitan Borough Council86%Yes2030Aug. 29, 2019
Bury Metropolitan Borough Council85%Yes2038July 10, 2019
Sunderland City Council85%Yes2030March 27, 2019
Derby City Council84%Yes2050May 23, 2019
Chesterfield Borough Council84%Yes2030July 17, 2019
Bradford Metropolitan District Council84%Yes2030Jan. 15, 2019
South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority83%No2040Nov. 7, 2019

These councils are the most similar to Leeds City 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
Folkestone and Hythe District Council92%Yes2030July 24, 2019
Bath and North East Somerset Council92%Yes2030March 14, 2019
Swansea City Council90%No2030June 27, 2019
Ashford Borough Council90%Yes2030No
Milton Keynes89%Yes2030Jan. 23, 2019
Ashfield District Council89%NoNo targetNo
Rushmoor Borough Council89%Yes2030June 20, 2019
Greater Manchester Combined Authority88%No2038July 26, 2019
West Lothian Council88%NoNo targetSept. 24, 2019
Welwyn Hatfield Council88%Yes2030June 19, 2019
Council nameSimilarityHas planCarbon Neutral byDeclared emergency
Wakefield Metropolitan District Council96%Yes2030May 23, 2019
West Yorkshire Combined Authority96%No2038June 27, 2019
Harrogate Borough Council95%No2038April 10, 2019
Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council94%Yes2040Sept. 18, 2019
North Yorkshire County Council94%Yes2030No
Kirklees Council94%Yes2038Jan. 16, 2019
Bradford Metropolitan District Council93%Yes2030Jan. 15, 2019
Selby District Council93%Yes2030No
South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority92%No2040Nov. 7, 2019
Sheffield City Council91%Yes2050Feb. 6, 2019

These councils are the most similar to Leeds City 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
Sheffield City Council97%Yes2050Feb. 6, 2019
Wigan Metropolitan Borough Council96%Yes2038July 17, 2019
Wirral Council94%No2030July 15, 2019
Sefton Metropolitan Borough Council91%Yes2030July 18, 2019
West Yorkshire Combined Authority91%No2038June 27, 2019
Newport City Council91%Yes2030Nov. 23, 2021
North East Lincolnshire Council91%Yes2050Sept. 19, 2019
Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council90%YesNo targetNo
Dundee City Council90%Yes2045June 24, 2019
Redditch Borough Council90%No2050Sept. 23, 2019

These councils are the most similar to Leeds City 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
St Helens Metropolitan Borough Council98%Yes2040June 10, 2019
Bradford Metropolitan District Council98%Yes2030Jan. 15, 2019
Thanet District Council97%Yes2030July 11, 2019
Wigan Metropolitan Borough Council97%Yes2038July 17, 2019
Three Rivers District Council96%No2030May 21, 2019
Aberdeen City Council96%Yes2045No
Gateshead Metropolitan Borough Council96%Yes2030May 23, 2019
Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council96%Yes2030July 18, 2019
City of Edinburgh Council95%Yes2030Feb. 7, 2019
South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority95%No2040Nov. 7, 2019

Features

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

Powers & Responsibilities

Leeds City Council is a 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.

    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

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

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    Cite this page

    mySociety, Climate Emergency UK (2023). CAPE: Leeds City Council. Available at: http://cape.mysociety.org/councils/leeds-city-council/ [Accessed 26 Mar 2023].

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