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Liverpool City Council

Declarations & pledges

Climate emergency declaration

This council declared a climate emergency on July 17, 2019.

Council only pledge for 2030

“All political parties within the city agreed to work together to rise to the challenge of an impending ecological disaster by making Liverpool a Net Zero Carbon city by 2030.”

Climate documents

Last update: March 16, 2022
Liverpool Net Zero Carbon 2030: The Climate Challenge

Action Plan · PDF

Show more action plan documents
Liverpool City Council Action Plan

PDF · We no longer hold a copy of this document

Action On Climate Change

Summary Document · HTML

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

SectionLiverpool City CouncilAverage single tier council
Total score23%50%
Section 1 Governance, development and funding
8/21
10.3/21
Section 2 Mitigation and adaptation
4/18
9.0/18
Section 3 Commitment and integration
1/7
4.1/7
Section 4 Community, engagement and communications
1/9
5.1/9
Section 5 Measuring and setting emissions targets
2/5
2.9/5
Section 6 Co-benefits
1/4
2.2/4
Section 7 Diversity and inclusion
0/5
0.9/5
Section 8 Education, skills and training
1/5
2.3/5
Section 9 Ecological emergency
2/4
2.1/4

Emissions data

1645.8 ktCO2

Total 2020 emissions

3.3 tCO2

per person

12.3 ktCO2

per km2

35%

Domestic

34%

Transport

12%

Industry

11%

Commercial

8%

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 Liverpool 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
Birmingham City Council89%No2030June 11, 2019
Wolverhampton City Council87%No2028July 17, 2019
Manchester City Council86%Yes2038July 10, 2019
Salford City Council85%No2038July 17, 2019
Liverpool City Region Combined Authority82%Yes2040April 28, 2019
Blackpool Borough Council82%Yes2030June 26, 2019
Kingston-upon-Hull City Council80%No2030March 21, 2019
Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council80%No2030March 10, 2020
Oldham Metropolitan Borough Council79%No2025Sept. 11, 2019
Derby City Council79%Yes2050May 23, 2019

These councils are the most similar to Liverpool 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
Salford City Council94%No2038July 17, 2019
Birmingham City Council91%No2030June 11, 2019
Welwyn Hatfield Council88%Yes2030June 19, 2019
Wolverhampton City Council88%No2028July 17, 2019
Bristol City Council87%Yes2025Nov. 13, 2018
Portsmouth City Council87%No2030March 19, 2019
Norwich City Council87%Yes2030Jan. 29, 2019
Derby City Council86%Yes2050May 23, 2019
Coventry City Council86%NoNo targetJune 18, 2019
West Midlands Combined Authority86%No2041June 28, 2019
Council nameSimilarityHas planCarbon Neutral byDeclared emergency
Liverpool City Region Combined Authority99%Yes2040April 28, 2019
Knowsley Metropolitan Borough Council98%Yes2040Jan. 29, 2020
Wirral Council96%No2030July 15, 2019
Sefton Metropolitan Borough Council96%Yes2030July 18, 2019
Halton Borough Council96%YesNo targetOct. 16, 2019
St Helens Metropolitan Borough Council96%Yes2040June 10, 2019
West Lancashire Borough Council95%Yes2030July 17, 2019
Cheshire West and Chester Council94%Yes2030May 21, 2019
Flintshire County Council93%YesNo targetNo
Warrington Borough Council93%Yes2030June 7, 2019

These councils are the most similar to Liverpool 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
Birmingham City Council92%No2030June 11, 2019
Wolverhampton City Council87%No2028July 17, 2019
Kingston-upon-Hull City Council87%No2030March 21, 2019
Nottingham City Council84%Yes2028Jan. 21, 2019
Manchester City Council84%Yes2038July 10, 2019
Blackpool Borough Council84%Yes2030June 26, 2019
Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council83%No2030March 10, 2020
Walsall Metropolitan Borough Council82%Yes2050Sept. 16, 2019
Belfast City Council81%YesNo targetOct. 1, 2019
Stoke-on-Trent City Council81%NoNo targetJuly 4, 2019

These councils are the most similar to Liverpool 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
Nottingham City Council100%Yes2028Jan. 21, 2019
London Borough of Croydon100%YesNo targetJuly 15, 2019
Slough Borough Council100%YesNo targetNo
Southend-on-Sea Borough Council99%No2030July 18, 2019
London Borough of Barnet99%NoNo targetMay 24, 2022
Watford Borough Council99%No2030July 9, 2019
Birmingham City Council98%No2030June 11, 2019
Bristol City Council98%Yes2025Nov. 13, 2018
London Borough of Sutton98%No2045July 22, 2019
Manchester City Council98%Yes2038July 10, 2019

Powers & Responsibilities

Liverpool 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

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

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    Cite this page

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

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