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London Borough of Barnet

Declarations & pledges

Climate emergency declaration

This council declared a climate emergency on May 24, 2022.

Climate pledges

We couldn’t find any climate pledges from this council. If you’ve found one, let us know!

Climate documents

Last update: March 16, 2022
Barnet’s Sustainability Strategy

Pre-Plan · HTML

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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

London Borough of Barnet scored zero points in this assessment. This is because the council either didn’t have any published plans at the time of the assessment, or the plans didn’t qualify.

SectionLondon Borough of BarnetAverage single tier council
Total score0%50%
Section 1 Governance, development and funding
0/21
10.3/21
Section 2 Mitigation and adaptation
0/18
9.0/18
Section 3 Commitment and integration
0/7
4.1/7
Section 4 Community, engagement and communications
0/9
5.1/9
Section 5 Measuring and setting emissions targets
0/5
2.9/5
Section 6 Co-benefits
0/4
2.2/4
Section 7 Diversity and inclusion
0/5
0.9/5
Section 8 Education, skills and training
0/5
2.3/5
Section 9 Ecological emergency
0/4
2.1/4

Emissions data

1089.6 ktCO2

Total 2020 emissions

2.7 tCO2

per person

12.6 ktCO2

per km2

48%

Domestic

32%

Transport

9%

Commercial

7%

Public Sector

3%

Industry

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 London Borough of Barnet 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
Watford Borough Council94%No2030July 9, 2019
London Borough of Harrow89%Yes2030July 18, 2019
London Borough of Sutton86%No2045July 22, 2019
London Borough of Merton86%No2030July 10, 2019
Brighton and Hove City Council86%Yes2030Dec. 13, 2018
Rushmoor Borough Council85%Yes2030June 20, 2019
Worthing Borough Council85%YesJuly 18, 2019
London Borough of Croydon84%YesNo targetJuly 15, 2019
Reading Borough Council84%Yes2030Feb. 26, 2019
Spelthorne Borough Council84%No2050Oct. 14, 2020

These councils are the most similar to London Borough of Barnet 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
Watford Borough Council93%No2030July 9, 2019
London Borough of Croydon93%YesNo targetJuly 15, 2019
Rushmoor Borough Council90%Yes2030June 20, 2019
Reading Borough Council88%Yes2030Feb. 26, 2019
Southend-on-Sea Borough Council88%No2030July 18, 2019
Ipswich Borough Council88%Yes2030July 9, 2019
London Borough of Sutton87%No2045July 22, 2019
South Tyneside Council87%No2030July 18, 2019
Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames87%Yes2038June 25, 2019
Bracknell Forest Council87%Yes2050No

Read more about how we calculate this.

Council nameSimilarityHas planCarbon Neutral byDeclared emergency
London Borough of Brent99%No2030July 8, 2019
London Borough of Camden99%Yes2030April 8, 2019
Hertsmere Borough Council99%Yes2050Sept. 18, 2019
London Borough of Haringey99%Yes2027March 18, 2019
Westminster City Council98%Yes2030Sept. 18, 2019
Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea98%Yes2030Oct. 1, 2019
London Borough of Islington98%Yes2030June 27, 2019
London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham98%Yes2030July 17, 2019
London Borough of Enfield98%No2030July 8, 2019
London Borough of Harrow98%Yes2030July 18, 2019

These councils are the most similar to London Borough of Barnet 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
London Borough of Harrow95%Yes2030July 18, 2019
London Borough of Bexley91%NoNo targetNo
Watford Borough Council90%No2030July 9, 2019
London Borough of Merton90%No2030July 10, 2019
Worthing Borough Council83%YesJuly 18, 2019
City of London82%No2027No
Oxford City Council81%Yes2030Jan. 28, 2019
Exeter City Council80%Yes2030July 23, 2019
Rushmoor Borough Council79%Yes2030June 20, 2019
Spelthorne Borough Council78%No2050Oct. 14, 2020

These councils are the most similar to London Borough of Barnet 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
Watford Borough Council100%No2030July 9, 2019
Slough Borough Council100%YesNo targetNo
London Borough of Croydon100%YesNo targetJuly 15, 2019
Nottingham City Council99%Yes2028Jan. 21, 2019
Liverpool City Council99%Yes2030July 17, 2019
London Borough of Sutton99%No2045July 22, 2019
Manchester City Council99%Yes2038July 10, 2019
Southend-on-Sea Borough Council98%No2030July 18, 2019
Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames98%Yes2038June 25, 2019
Leicester City Council98%Yes2030Feb. 1, 2019

Powers & Responsibilities

London Borough of Barnet is a London Borough, 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.

    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

    barnet.gov.uk
    London Borough of Barnet’s official homepage.
    Tyndall Centre Carbon Budget report
    Check London Borough of Barnet’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 London Borough of Barnet’s climate performance, and actions you can take.

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    Cite this page

    mySociety, Climate Emergency UK (2023). CAPE: London Borough of Barnet. Available at: http://cape.mysociety.org/councils/london-borough-of-barnet/ [Accessed 1 Apr 2023].

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