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London Borough of Waltham Forest

Declarations & pledges

Climate emergency declaration

This council declared a climate emergency on April 25, 2019.

Whole area pledge

“Over the last ten years Waltham Forest has successfully met the carbon reduction targets set out in the 2008 Climate Change Strategy, which set an overall target to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 80% by 2050.”

Climate documents

Last update: March 16, 2022
Notice Of Motion: Climate Emergency

Meeting Minutes · 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 Waltham Forest 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 Waltham ForestAverage 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

603.0 ktCO2

Total 2020 emissions

2.2 tCO2

per person

15.5 ktCO2

per km2

48%

Domestic

33%

Transport

8%

Commercial

7%

Industry

5%

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 Waltham Forest 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 Lewisham88%Yes2030Feb. 27, 2019
Royal Borough of Greenwich87%Yes2030June 26, 2019
London Borough of Ealing86%Yes2030April 2, 2019
London Borough of Brent85%No2030July 8, 2019
London Borough of Hounslow84%Yes2030No
Luton Borough Council80%Yes2040Jan. 13, 2020
Portsmouth City Council80%No2030March 19, 2019
Greater London Authority80%YesDec. 1, 2019
London Borough of Redbridge79%Yes2050June 20, 2019
London Borough of Barking and Dagenham77%No2030Jan. 30, 2020

These councils are the most similar to London Borough of Waltham Forest 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
Luton Borough Council92%Yes2040Jan. 13, 2020
London Borough of Redbridge91%Yes2050June 20, 2019
London Borough of Enfield90%No2030July 8, 2019
London Borough of Lewisham89%Yes2030Feb. 27, 2019
London Borough of Barking and Dagenham89%No2030Jan. 30, 2020
Gosport Borough Council88%Yes2050No
London Borough of Ealing87%Yes2030April 2, 2019
London Borough of Hounslow87%Yes2030No
London Borough of Sutton87%No2045July 22, 2019
Hastings Borough Council85%Yes2030Feb. 13, 2019

Read more about how we calculate this.

Council nameSimilarityHas planCarbon Neutral byDeclared emergency
London Borough of Hackney99%Yes2040June 28, 2019
London Borough of Tower Hamlets99%No2025July 17, 2019
London Borough of Newham99%Yes2050April 15, 2019
London Borough of Redbridge99%Yes2050June 20, 2019
London Borough of Haringey99%Yes2027March 18, 2019
London Borough of Enfield99%No2030July 8, 2019
London Borough of Islington99%Yes2030June 27, 2019
City of London98%No2027No
Kent County Council98%Yes2030May 23, 2019
London Borough of Southwark98%No2050March 27, 2019

These councils are the most similar to London Borough of Waltham Forest 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 Brent94%No2030July 8, 2019
London Borough of Lewisham87%Yes2030Feb. 27, 2019
Royal Borough of Greenwich86%Yes2030June 26, 2019
Slough Borough Council82%YesNo targetNo
London Borough of Hounslow82%Yes2030No
London Borough of Newham81%Yes2050April 15, 2019
London Borough of Ealing80%Yes2030April 2, 2019
Portsmouth City Council78%No2030March 19, 2019
Stevenage Borough Council73%No2030June 12, 2019
London Borough of Southwark73%No2050March 27, 2019

These councils are the most similar to London Borough of Waltham Forest 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 Brent97%No2030July 8, 2019
Royal Borough of Greenwich94%Yes2030June 26, 2019
London Borough of Ealing93%Yes2030April 2, 2019
London Borough of Barking and Dagenham92%No2030Jan. 30, 2020
Greater London Authority91%YesDec. 1, 2019
London Borough of Lewisham89%Yes2030Feb. 27, 2019
London Borough of Redbridge89%Yes2050June 20, 2019
London Borough of Merton89%No2030July 10, 2019
Portsmouth City Council88%No2030March 19, 2019
London Borough of Haringey88%Yes2027March 18, 2019

Powers & Responsibilities

London Borough of Waltham Forest 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

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

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    Cite this page

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

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