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London Borough of Newham

Declarations & pledges

Climate emergency declaration

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

Whole area pledge for 2050

“Pledge to make the London Borough of Newham carbon neutral by 2030 and carbon zero by 2050, taking into account production and emissions.”

Climate documents

Last update: June 21, 2022
Climate Emergency Annual Report 2020–2021

Progress Report · PDF
Climate Emergency Action Plan

Action Plan · PDF
Our Plan To Address The Climate Emergency | Newham Council

Summary Document · HTML · 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

SectionLondon Borough of NewhamAverage single tier council
Total score52%50%
Section 1 Governance, development and funding
7/21
10.3/21
Section 2 Mitigation and adaptation
7/18
9.0/18
Section 3 Commitment and integration
5/7
4.1/7
Section 4 Community, engagement and communications
8/9
5.1/9
Section 5 Measuring and setting emissions targets
2/5
2.9/5
Section 6 Co-benefits
3/4
2.2/4
Section 7 Diversity and inclusion
2/5
0.9/5
Section 8 Education, skills and training
2/5
2.3/5
Section 9 Ecological emergency
1/4
2.1/4

Emissions data

877.5 ktCO2

Total 2020 emissions

2.5 tCO2

per person

22.7 ktCO2

per km2

32%

Domestic

30%

Transport

20%

Commercial

15%

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 Newham 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 Lewisham82%Yes2030Feb. 27, 2019
London Borough of Haringey79%Yes2027March 18, 2019
London Borough of Waltham Forest76%NoNo targetApril 25, 2019
Royal Borough of Greenwich75%Yes2030June 26, 2019
London Borough of Brent74%No2030July 8, 2019
Slough Borough Council71%YesNo targetNo
London Borough of Barking and Dagenham71%No2030Jan. 30, 2020
London Borough of Ealing71%Yes2030April 2, 2019
Portsmouth City Council70%No2030March 19, 2019
London Borough of Southwark70%No2050March 27, 2019

These councils are the most similar to London Borough of Newham 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
Slough Borough Council81%YesNo targetNo
London Borough of Haringey78%Yes2027March 18, 2019
London Borough of Barking and Dagenham76%No2030Jan. 30, 2020
Royal Borough of Greenwich75%Yes2030June 26, 2019
London Borough of Lewisham75%Yes2030Feb. 27, 2019
Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority73%Yes2050No
Gosport Borough Council73%Yes2050No
Portsmouth City Council72%No2030March 19, 2019
Plymouth City Council71%Yes2030March 18, 2019
Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council71%No2030March 10, 2020

Read more about how we calculate this.

Council nameSimilarityHas planCarbon Neutral byDeclared emergency
Royal Borough of Greenwich99%Yes2030June 26, 2019
Kent County Council99%Yes2030May 23, 2019
London Borough of Redbridge99%Yes2050June 20, 2019
London Borough of Tower Hamlets99%No2025July 17, 2019
London Borough of Waltham Forest99%NoNo targetApril 25, 2019
London Borough of Barking and Dagenham99%No2030Jan. 30, 2020
London Borough of Lewisham99%Yes2030Feb. 27, 2019
London Borough of Hackney99%Yes2040June 28, 2019
London Borough of Southwark98%No2050March 27, 2019
London Borough of Bexley98%NoNo targetNo

These councils are the most similar to London Borough of Newham 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 Lewisham90%Yes2030Feb. 27, 2019
London Borough of Southwark87%No2050March 27, 2019
London Borough of Lambeth86%Yes2030Jan. 23, 2019
London Borough of Brent85%No2030July 8, 2019
London Borough of Waltham Forest83%NoNo targetApril 25, 2019
London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham75%Yes2030July 17, 2019
London Borough of Haringey75%Yes2027March 18, 2019
Royal Borough of Greenwich74%Yes2030June 26, 2019
London Borough of Ealing71%Yes2030April 2, 2019
Portsmouth City Council69%No2030March 19, 2019

These councils are the most similar to London Borough of Newham 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 Wandsworth99%Yes2050July 17, 2019
London Borough of Haringey94%Yes2027March 18, 2019
London Borough of Lewisham93%Yes2030Feb. 27, 2019
London Borough of Southwark93%No2050March 27, 2019
London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham90%Yes2030July 17, 2019
London Borough of Lambeth87%Yes2030Jan. 23, 2019
London Borough of Brent86%No2030July 8, 2019
London Borough of Waltham Forest83%NoNo targetApril 25, 2019
London Borough of Camden83%Yes2030April 8, 2019
Westminster City Council82%Yes2030Sept. 18, 2019

Features

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

Clear communication Strong on public health Good on green jobs, skills & training

Powers & Responsibilities

London Borough of Newham 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

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

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    Cite this page

    mySociety, Climate Emergency UK (2023). CAPE: London Borough of Newham. Available at: http://cape.mysociety.org/councils/london-borough-of-newham/ [Accessed 22 Mar 2023].

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