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London Borough of Southwark

Declarations & pledges

Climate emergency declaration

This council declared a climate emergency on March 27, 2019.

Whole area pledge for 2050

“Southwark’s Council Plan Commitments to make Southwark carbon neutral by 2050 and halve Southwark Council’s emissions by 2022. ”

Climate documents

Last update: March 16, 2022
Cabinet Report: Delivering A Climate Strategy For Southwark, October 2019

Pre-Plan · PDF
Tackling The Climate Emergency Together Our Strategy For A Carbon Neutral Southwark By 2030

Climate Strategy · PDF · Approved

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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 Southwark was a top performer amongst single tier councils, in the Measuring and setting emissions targets section.

SectionLondon Borough of SouthwarkAverage single tier council
Total score79%50%
Section 1 Governance, development and funding
16/21
10.3/21
Section 2 Mitigation and adaptation
17/18
9.0/18
Section 3 Commitment and integration
4/7
4.1/7
Section 4 Community, engagement and communications
8/9
5.1/9
Section 5 · Top performer Measuring and setting emissions targets
5/5
2.9/5
Section 6 Co-benefits
3/4
2.2/4
Section 7 Diversity and inclusion
3/5
0.9/5
Section 8 Education, skills and training
4/5
2.3/5
Section 9 Ecological emergency
3/4
2.1/4

Emissions data

828.9 ktCO2

Total 2020 emissions

2.6 tCO2

per person

27.7 ktCO2

per km2

34%

Domestic

27%

Transport

20%

Commercial

14%

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 Southwark 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 Lambeth90%Yes2030Jan. 23, 2019
London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham87%Yes2030July 17, 2019
London Borough of Brent80%No2030July 8, 2019
London Borough of Wandsworth78%Yes2050July 17, 2019
London Borough of Lewisham76%Yes2030Feb. 27, 2019
London Borough of Hackney76%Yes2040June 28, 2019
Westminster City Council73%Yes2030Sept. 18, 2019
London Borough of Islington72%Yes2030June 27, 2019
Royal Borough of Greenwich72%Yes2030June 26, 2019
London Borough of Tower Hamlets72%No2025July 17, 2019

These councils are the most similar to London Borough of Southwark 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
Exeter City Council90%Yes2030July 23, 2019
London Borough of Lambeth88%Yes2030Jan. 23, 2019
Manchester City Council87%Yes2038July 10, 2019
Southampton City Council84%Yes2030Sept. 18, 2019
Nottingham City Council83%Yes2028Jan. 21, 2019
London Borough of Tower Hamlets82%No2025July 17, 2019
Glasgow City Council82%Yes2030May 16, 2019
London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham82%Yes2030July 17, 2019
Bristol City Council81%Yes2025Nov. 13, 2018
London Borough of Islington81%Yes2030June 27, 2019

Read more about how we calculate this.

Council nameSimilarityHas planCarbon Neutral byDeclared emergency
City of London99%No2027No
London Borough of Lambeth99%Yes2030Jan. 23, 2019
Greater London Authority99%YesDec. 1, 2019
London Borough of Tower Hamlets99%No2025July 17, 2019
London Borough of Lewisham99%Yes2030Feb. 27, 2019
London Borough of Hackney99%Yes2040June 28, 2019
London Borough of Islington99%Yes2030June 27, 2019
Westminster City Council99%Yes2030Sept. 18, 2019
London Borough of Camden98%Yes2030April 8, 2019
London Borough of Wandsworth98%Yes2050July 17, 2019

These councils are the most similar to London Borough of Southwark 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 Lambeth90%Yes2030Jan. 23, 2019
London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham87%Yes2030July 17, 2019
London Borough of Newham86%Yes2050April 15, 2019
London Borough of Lewisham85%Yes2030Feb. 27, 2019
London Borough of Brent79%No2030July 8, 2019
London Borough of Haringey78%Yes2027March 18, 2019
London Borough of Camden76%Yes2030April 8, 2019
London Borough of Waltham Forest74%NoNo targetApril 25, 2019
London Borough of Hackney71%Yes2040June 28, 2019
Royal Borough of Greenwich71%Yes2030June 26, 2019

These councils are the most similar to London Borough of Southwark 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 Hammersmith & Fulham97%Yes2030July 17, 2019
London Borough of Lambeth95%Yes2030Jan. 23, 2019
London Borough of Newham93%Yes2050April 15, 2019
London Borough of Wandsworth92%Yes2050July 17, 2019
London Borough of Camden90%Yes2030April 8, 2019
Westminster City Council89%Yes2030Sept. 18, 2019
Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea88%Yes2030Oct. 1, 2019
London Borough of Haringey87%Yes2027March 18, 2019
London Borough of Lewisham86%Yes2030Feb. 27, 2019
London Borough of Brent80%No2030July 8, 2019

Features

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

Comprehensive plan for mitigation Integrated with Local Plan Strong on engagement

Powers & Responsibilities

London Borough of Southwark 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

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

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    Cite this page

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

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