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London Borough of Wandsworth

Declarations & pledges

Climate emergency declaration

This council declared a climate emergency on July 17, 2019.

Council only pledge for 2050

“We are now building on this record to help achieve our biggest environmental challenge yet – to be a carbon neutral council by 2030 and a zero emission council by 2050.”

Climate documents

Last update: Feb. 20, 2023
Report By The Chief Executive On Delivering Sustainability For All – An Update On Delivery Of The Wandsworth Environment And Sustainability Strategy (wess) And Wandsworth Climate Action Plan For 2023

Progress Report · PDF · Council Only

Show more progress report documents
Report By The Chief Executive On The Update To The Action Plan, February 2021

Progress Report · PDF · Council Only

2021 Action Plan

Action Plan · PDF · Council Only
Environment And Sustainability Stretegy 2019–2030

Climate Strategy · PDF · Council Only

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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 WandsworthAverage single tier council
Total score59%50%
Section 1 Governance, development and funding
10/21
10.3/21
Section 2 Mitigation and adaptation
11/18
9.0/18
Section 3 Commitment and integration
6/7
4.1/7
Section 4 Community, engagement and communications
7/9
5.1/9
Section 5 Measuring and setting emissions targets
2/5
2.9/5
Section 6 Co-benefits
2/4
2.2/4
Section 7 Diversity and inclusion
0/5
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

803.1 ktCO2

Total 2020 emissions

2.4 tCO2

per person

22.8 ktCO2

per km2

47%

Domestic

27%

Transport

11%

Commercial

11%

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 Wandsworth 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 Hammersmith & Fulham82%Yes2030July 17, 2019
London Borough of Brent78%No2030July 8, 2019
Greater London Authority78%YesDec. 1, 2019
London Borough of Southwark76%No2050March 27, 2019
London Borough of Lewisham76%Yes2030Feb. 27, 2019
London Borough of Ealing76%Yes2030April 2, 2019
London Borough of Lambeth75%Yes2030Jan. 23, 2019
London Borough of Redbridge75%Yes2050June 20, 2019
Royal Borough of Greenwich75%Yes2030June 26, 2019
London Borough of Haringey74%Yes2027March 18, 2019

These councils are the most similar to London Borough of Wandsworth 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
London Borough of Brent95%No2030July 8, 2019
Reading Borough Council92%Yes2030Feb. 26, 2019
Bristol City Council92%Yes2025Nov. 13, 2018
Norwich City Council92%Yes2030Jan. 29, 2019
Greater London Authority91%YesDec. 1, 2019
Eastbourne Borough Council88%Yes2030July 10, 2019
Glasgow City Council87%Yes2030May 16, 2019
Worcester City Council87%Yes2030July 16, 2019
Portsmouth City Council86%No2030March 19, 2019
Watford Borough Council86%No2030July 9, 2019

Read more about how we calculate this.

Council nameSimilarityHas planCarbon Neutral byDeclared emergency
London Borough of Merton99%No2030July 10, 2019
Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea99%Yes2030Oct. 1, 2019
London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham99%Yes2030July 17, 2019
Westminster City Council99%Yes2030Sept. 18, 2019
London Borough of Lambeth99%Yes2030Jan. 23, 2019
Greater London Authority99%YesDec. 1, 2019
London Borough of Sutton99%No2045July 22, 2019
London Borough of Camden99%Yes2030April 8, 2019
City of London98%No2027No
London Borough of Southwark98%No2050March 27, 2019

These councils are the most similar to London Borough of Wandsworth 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 Hammersmith & Fulham74%Yes2030July 17, 2019
London Borough of Camden73%Yes2030April 8, 2019
Westminster City Council73%Yes2030Sept. 18, 2019
London Borough of Redbridge66%Yes2050June 20, 2019
Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea65%Yes2030Oct. 1, 2019
Greater London Authority65%YesDec. 1, 2019
London Borough of Merton63%No2030July 10, 2019
London Borough of Harrow62%Yes2030July 18, 2019
London Borough of Ealing62%Yes2030April 2, 2019
London Borough of Southwark61%No2050March 27, 2019

These councils are the most similar to London Borough of Wandsworth 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 Newham99%Yes2050April 15, 2019
London Borough of Haringey95%Yes2027March 18, 2019
London Borough of Lewisham94%Yes2030Feb. 27, 2019
London Borough of Southwark92%No2050March 27, 2019
London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham89%Yes2030July 17, 2019
London Borough of Brent87%No2030July 8, 2019
London Borough of Lambeth86%Yes2030Jan. 23, 2019
London Borough of Waltham Forest84%NoNo targetApril 25, 2019
London Borough of Camden81%Yes2030April 8, 2019
Westminster City Council80%Yes2030Sept. 18, 2019

Features

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

Integrated with Local Plan Clear communication Good on green jobs, skills & training

Powers & Responsibilities

London Borough of Wandsworth 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

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

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    Cite this page

    mySociety, Climate Emergency UK (2023). CAPE: London Borough of Wandsworth. Available at: http://cape.mysociety.org/councils/london-borough-of-wandsworth/ [Accessed 24 Mar 2023].

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