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London Borough of Croydon

Declarations & pledges

Climate emergency declaration

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

Whole area pledge

“Croydon has set a long-term target for the borough of a 34% reduction in CO2 emissions by 2025.”

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

SectionLondon Borough of CroydonAverage single tier council
Total score60%50%
Section 1 Governance, development and funding
11/21
10.3/21
Section 2 Mitigation and adaptation
8/18
9.0/18
Section 3 Commitment and integration
5/7
4.1/7
Section 4 Community, engagement and communications
5/9
5.1/9
Section 5 Measuring and setting emissions targets
3/5
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
3/5
2.3/5
Section 9 Ecological emergency
3/4
2.1/4

Emissions data

1018.2 ktCO2

Total 2020 emissions

2.6 tCO2

per person

11.8 ktCO2

per km2

49%

Domestic

31%

Transport

10%

Commercial

6%

Public Sector

4%

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 Croydon 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
London Borough of Enfield89%No2030July 8, 2019
Reading Borough Council88%Yes2030Feb. 26, 2019
Greater London Authority88%YesDec. 1, 2019
Watford Borough Council87%No2030July 9, 2019
Luton Borough Council87%Yes2040Jan. 13, 2020
London Borough of Ealing87%Yes2030April 2, 2019
London Borough of Redbridge86%Yes2050June 20, 2019
Southend-on-Sea Borough Council86%No2030July 18, 2019
Worthing Borough Council85%YesJuly 18, 2019
Brighton and Hove City Council85%Yes2030Dec. 13, 2018

These councils are the most similar to London Borough of Croydon 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 Council95%No2030July 9, 2019
London Borough of Sutton93%No2045July 22, 2019
London Borough of Barnet93%NoNo targetMay 24, 2022
Hastings Borough Council91%Yes2030Feb. 13, 2019
Southend-on-Sea Borough Council90%No2030July 18, 2019
Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Borough Council90%Yes2030July 16, 2019
Ipswich Borough Council89%Yes2030July 9, 2019
Spelthorne Borough Council89%No2050Oct. 14, 2020
London Borough of Harrow89%Yes2030July 18, 2019
London Borough of Enfield89%No2030July 8, 2019
Council nameSimilarityHas planCarbon Neutral byDeclared emergency
London Borough of Sutton99%No2045July 22, 2019
London Borough of Lambeth99%Yes2030Jan. 23, 2019
London Borough of Lewisham98%Yes2030Feb. 27, 2019
London Borough of Southwark98%No2050March 27, 2019
London Borough of Merton98%No2030July 10, 2019
Tandridge District Council98%Yes2030Feb. 13, 2020
London Borough of Bromley98%Yes2027No
London Borough of Wandsworth98%Yes2050July 17, 2019
Reigate & Banstead Borough Council98%Yes2030No
Greater London Authority98%YesDec. 1, 2019

These councils are the most similar to London Borough of Croydon 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
Greater London Authority89%YesDec. 1, 2019
Coventry City Council88%NoNo targetJune 18, 2019
Reading Borough Council86%Yes2030Feb. 26, 2019
Southampton City Council84%Yes2030Sept. 18, 2019
Bristol City Council82%Yes2025Nov. 13, 2018
London Borough of Enfield81%No2030July 8, 2019
Eastbourne Borough Council81%Yes2030July 10, 2019
Luton Borough Council81%Yes2040Jan. 13, 2020
Gosport Borough Council81%Yes2050No
Tamworth Borough Council81%No2050Oct. 19, 2019

These councils are the most similar to London Borough of Croydon 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
Slough Borough Council100%YesNo targetNo
Nottingham City Council100%Yes2028Jan. 21, 2019
Liverpool City Council100%Yes2030July 17, 2019
London Borough of Barnet100%NoNo targetMay 24, 2022
Watford Borough Council99%No2030July 9, 2019
Southend-on-Sea Borough Council99%No2030July 18, 2019
London Borough of Sutton99%No2045July 22, 2019
Birmingham City Council98%No2030June 11, 2019
Manchester City Council98%Yes2038July 10, 2019
Bristol City Council98%Yes2025Nov. 13, 2018

Features

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

Powers & Responsibilities

London Borough of Croydon 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

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

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    Cite this page

    mySociety, Climate Emergency UK (2023). CAPE: London Borough of Croydon. Available at: http://cape.mysociety.org/councils/london-borough-of-croydon/ [Accessed 26 Mar 2023].

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