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Lewes District Council

Declarations & pledges

Climate emergency declaration

This council declared a climate emergency on July 15, 2019.

Council only pledge for 2030

“In July 2019 we declared a climate emergency. The main purpose of this is was to commit to becoming carbon net zero and fully climate resilient by 2030.”

Climate documents

Last update: March 16, 2022
Climate Change And Sustainability Strategy And Action Plan 2021

Action Plan · PDF · Approved · Whole Area

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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

Lewes District Council was a top performer amongst district councils, in the Measuring and setting emissions targets section.

SectionLewes District CouncilAverage district council
Total score57%43%
Section 1 Governance, development and funding
17/21
9.4/21
Section 2 Mitigation and adaptation
9/18
8.1/18
Section 3 Commitment and integration
5/7
3.8/7
Section 4 Community, engagement and communications
5/9
4.7/9
Section 5 · Top performer Measuring and setting emissions targets
5/5
2.6/5
Section 6 Co-benefits
0/4
1.9/4
Section 7 Diversity and inclusion
1/5
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

349.7 ktCO2

Total 2020 emissions

3.4 tCO2

per person

1.2 ktCO2

per km2

42%

Transport

41%

Domestic

7%

Industry

5%

Commercial

3%

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 Lewes District 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
West Sussex County Council94%Yes2030April 5, 2019
Essex County Council91%Yes2030No
East Sussex County Council89%Yes2050Oct. 15, 2019
Maidstone Borough Council88%Yes2030April 10, 2019
Kent County Council87%Yes2030May 23, 2019
Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council86%Yes2025July 18, 2019
Arun District Council86%No2030Jan. 15, 2020
Bedford Borough Council85%Yes2030March 5, 2019
Hertfordshire County Council85%Yes2030July 16, 2019
Hampshire County Council84%No2050June 17, 2019

These councils are the most similar to Lewes District 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
West Sussex County Council95%Yes2030April 5, 2019
Hampshire County Council95%No2050June 17, 2019
Essex County Council93%Yes2030No
Mid Sussex District Council93%YesNo targetNo
Tonbridge and Malling Borough Council92%Yes2030July 9, 2019
North Hertfordshire District Council92%Yes2030May 21, 2019
Boston Borough Council91%NoNo targetJan. 20, 2020
Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council91%Yes2025July 18, 2019
Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council90%Yes2030Oct. 8, 2019
Worcestershire County Council90%Yes2030July 15, 2021

Read more about how we calculate this.

Council nameSimilarityHas planCarbon Neutral byDeclared emergency
Brighton and Hove City Council98%Yes2030Dec. 13, 2018
Mid Sussex District Council97%YesNo targetNo
Wealden District Council97%Yes2050July 24, 2019
Eastbourne Borough Council96%Yes2030July 10, 2019
Adur District Council96%Yes2030July 18, 2019
East Sussex County Council96%Yes2050Oct. 15, 2019
Crawley Borough Council96%Yes2040July 17, 2019
Tandridge District Council95%Yes2030Feb. 13, 2020
Horsham District Council95%Yes2050June 26, 2019
Worthing Borough Council95%YesJuly 18, 2019

These councils are the most similar to Lewes District 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
Rugby Borough Council98%Yes2030July 18, 2019
Wychavon District Council98%Yes2050No
Malvern Hills District Council97%Yes2030July 23, 2019
Braintree District Council97%Yes2030July 22, 2019
Epping Forest District Council97%Yes2030Sept. 19, 2019
Dorset Council96%No2040May 16, 2019
Monmouthshire County Council95%Yes2030May 16, 2019
South Hams District Council95%Yes2030July 25, 2019
West Sussex County Council95%Yes2030April 5, 2019
Maidstone Borough Council95%Yes2030April 10, 2019

These councils are the most similar to Lewes District 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
Swale Borough Council97%Yes2025June 26, 2019
Rugby Borough Council97%Yes2030July 18, 2019
East Sussex County Council97%Yes2050Oct. 15, 2019
Fenland District Council96%NoNo targetNo
East Staffordshire Borough Council96%Yes2040Aug. 17, 2020
Worcestershire County Council96%Yes2030July 15, 2021
Hampshire County Council95%No2050June 17, 2019
Newcastle-Under-Lyme District Council95%No2030April 3, 2019
Staffordshire County Council95%Yes2050July 25, 2019
Bath and North East Somerset Council95%Yes2030March 14, 2019

Powers & Responsibilities

Lewes District 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

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

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    Cite this page

    mySociety, Climate Emergency UK (2023). CAPE: Lewes District Council. Available at: http://cape.mysociety.org/councils/lewes-district-council/ [Accessed 26 Mar 2023].

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