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London Borough of Merton

Declarations & pledges

Climate emergency declaration

This council declared a climate emergency on July 10, 2019.

Council only pledge for 2030

“The Climate Strategy and Action Plan forms Merton's response to our declaration of a climate emergency, which set net zero carbon targets of 2050 for the borough and 2030 for the Council.”

Whole area pledge for 2050

“The Climate Strategy and Action Plan forms Merton's response to our declaration of a climate emergency, which set net zero carbon targets of 2050 for the borough.”

Climate documents

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

Climate Strategy · PDF
Climate Strategy And Action Plan

Summary Document · 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

SectionLondon Borough of MertonAverage single tier council
Total score52%50%
Section 1 Governance, development and funding
14/21
10.3/21
Section 2 Mitigation and adaptation
7/18
9.0/18
Section 3 Commitment and integration
6/7
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
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

552.0 ktCO2

Total 2020 emissions

2.7 tCO2

per person

14.7 ktCO2

per km2

47%

Domestic

26%

Transport

17%

Commercial

6%

Industry

4%

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 London Borough of Merton 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 Sutton88%No2045July 22, 2019
London Borough of Bexley88%NoNo targetNo
London Borough of Harrow87%Yes2030July 18, 2019
Watford Borough Council86%No2030July 9, 2019
London Borough of Barnet85%NoNo targetMay 24, 2022
Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames81%Yes2038June 25, 2019
London Borough of Redbridge81%Yes2050June 20, 2019
London Borough of Havering78%NoNo targetNo
Spelthorne Borough Council78%No2050Oct. 14, 2020
Oadby and Wigston Borough Council78%No2030No

These councils are the most similar to London Borough of Merton 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
Hastings Borough Council89%No2030Feb. 13, 2019
London Borough of Bexley88%NoNo targetNo
London Borough of Ealing87%Yes2030April 2, 2019
London Borough of Sutton86%No2045July 22, 2019
London Borough of Lewisham86%Yes2030Feb. 27, 2019
London Borough of Croydon85%YesNo targetJuly 15, 2019
London Borough of Enfield85%No2030July 8, 2019
Watford Borough Council85%No2030July 9, 2019
London Borough of Haringey84%Yes2027March 18, 2019
Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Borough Council83%Yes2030July 16, 2019

Read more about how we calculate this.

Council nameSimilarityHas planCarbon Neutral byDeclared emergency
London Borough of Wandsworth99%Yes2050July 17, 2019
London Borough of Sutton99%No2045July 22, 2019
London Borough of Lambeth99%Yes2030Jan. 23, 2019
London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham99%Yes2030July 17, 2019
Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames99%Yes2038June 25, 2019
Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea99%Yes2030Oct. 1, 2019
Epsom and Ewell Borough Council99%Yes2035July 23, 2019
Westminster City Council98%Yes2030Sept. 18, 2019
London Borough of Richmond upon Thames98%Yes2030July 9, 2019
Greater London Authority98%YesDec. 1, 2019

These councils are the most similar to London Borough of Merton 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 Harrow86%Yes2030July 18, 2019
London Borough of Sutton86%No2045July 22, 2019
London Borough of Barnet85%NoNo targetMay 24, 2022
London Borough of Bexley84%NoNo targetNo
Watford Borough Council81%No2030July 9, 2019
Oxford City Council78%Yes2030Jan. 28, 2019
Oadby and Wigston Borough Council78%No2030No
Cambridge City Council78%Yes2030Feb. 21, 2019
Exeter City Council77%Yes2030July 23, 2019
City of London76%No2027No

These councils are the most similar to London Borough of Merton 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
London Borough of Redbridge100%Yes2050June 20, 2019
Portsmouth City Council100%No2030March 19, 2019
Greater London Authority98%YesDec. 1, 2019
Southampton City Council97%Yes2030Sept. 18, 2019
London Borough of Harrow97%Yes2030July 18, 2019
Luton Borough Council97%Yes2040Jan. 13, 2020
London Borough of Barking and Dagenham96%No2030Jan. 30, 2020
London Borough of Hounslow96%Yes2030No
Leicester City Council96%Yes2030Feb. 1, 2019
Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames96%Yes2038June 25, 2019

Features

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

Integrated with Local Plan

Powers & Responsibilities

London Borough of Merton 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

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

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    Cite this page

    mySociety, Climate Emergency UK (2023). CAPE: London Borough of Merton. Available at: http://cape.mysociety.org/councils/london-borough-of-merton/ [Accessed 27 May 2023].

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