Back to all councils

Mid Devon District Council

Declarations & pledges

Climate emergency declaration

This council declared a climate emergency on June 26, 2019.

Whole area pledge for 2030

“Members agreed to the Devon-wide target of becoming carbon neutral by 2050, but will aim for Mid Devon to become carbon neutral by the more ambitious date of 2030. ”

Climate documents

Last update: March 16, 2022

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

SectionMid Devon District CouncilAverage district council
Total score57%43%
Section 1 Governance, development and funding
9/21
9.4/21
Section 2 Mitigation and adaptation
10/18
8.1/18
Section 3 Commitment and integration
5/7
3.8/7
Section 4 Community, engagement and communications
5/9
4.7/9
Section 5 Measuring and setting emissions targets
4/5
2.6/5
Section 6 Co-benefits
3/4
1.9/4
Section 7 Diversity and inclusion
1/5
0.5/5
Section 8 Education, skills and training
3/5
1.5/5
Section 9 Ecological emergency
3/4
1.8/4

Emissions data

363.5 ktCO2

Total 2020 emissions

4.4 tCO2

per person

0.4 ktCO2

per km2

37%

Transport

29%

Domestic

18%

Industry

10%

Agriculture

5%

Commercial

1%

Public Sector

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 Mid Devon District Council 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
North Devon Council83%Yes2030July 24, 2019
Devon County Council80%Yes2030Feb. 21, 2019
Shropshire Council - Unitary80%No2030May 16, 2019
Forest of Dean District Council76%Yes2030Dec. 6, 2018
Somerset Council76%NoNo
Cornwall Council (Unitary)75%Yes2030Jan. 22, 2019
Gwynedd County Council74%No2030March 7, 2019
Herefordshire Council74%Yes2030March 8, 2019
South Hams District Council74%Yes2030July 25, 2019
Dorset Council74%No2040May 16, 2019

These councils are the most similar to Mid Devon District Council 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
North Devon Council86%Yes2030July 24, 2019
Herefordshire Council84%Yes2030March 8, 2019
Shropshire Council - Unitary75%No2030May 16, 2019
Devon County Council75%Yes2030Feb. 21, 2019
South Holland District Council73%NoNo targetNo
East Ayrshire Council72%No2030No
Somerset Council71%NoNo
Cornwall Council (Unitary)70%Yes2030Jan. 22, 2019
West Lindsey District Council70%No2050No
Dorset Council70%No2040May 16, 2019
Council nameSimilarityHas planCarbon Neutral byDeclared emergency
Exeter City Council98%Yes2030July 23, 2019
Teignbridge District Council96%Yes2025April 18, 2019
East Devon District Council95%Yes2040July 24, 2019
North Devon Council94%Yes2030July 24, 2019
Torbay Council93%Yes2030June 19, 2019
West Devon Borough Council92%Yes2030May 21, 2019
South Hams District Council91%Yes2030July 25, 2019
Vale of Glamorgan Council91%Yes2030July 29, 2019
Devon County Council89%Yes2030Feb. 21, 2019
Torridge District Council89%Yes2030July 1, 2019

These councils are the most similar to Mid Devon District Council 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
Shropshire Council - Unitary94%No2030May 16, 2019
Powys County Council94%No2030July 30, 2020
West Suffolk Council94%No2030Sept. 19, 2019
Devon County Council91%Yes2030Feb. 21, 2019
Somerset Council90%NoNo
Forest of Dean District Council89%Yes2030Dec. 6, 2018
Teignbridge District Council88%Yes2025April 18, 2019
North Warwickshire Borough Council87%No2030Oct. 22, 2019
Arun District Council87%No2030Jan. 15, 2020
Gwynedd County Council86%No2030March 7, 2019

These councils are the most similar to Mid Devon District Council 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
West Lindsey District Council96%No2050No
Cotswold District Council95%NoNo targetJuly 3, 2019
Babergh District Council93%Yes2030July 23, 2019
Pembrokeshire County Council93%Yes2030May 9, 2019
Maldon District Council92%Yes2030Feb. 4, 2021
South Hams District Council91%Yes2030July 25, 2019
Stratford-on-Avon District Council90%Yes2030July 15, 2019
Ribble Valley Borough Council90%No2030No
Rutland County Council90%No2050No
Derbyshire Dales District Council90%No2030May 30, 2019

Features

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

Powers & Responsibilities

Mid Devon District Council is a Non-Metropolitan District, 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.

    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
    Waste collection

    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

    middevon.gov.uk
    Mid Devon District Council’s official homepage.
    Tyndall Centre Carbon Budget report
    Check Mid Devon District Council’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 Mid Devon District Council’s climate performance, and actions you can take.

    What do you want from Climate Action Plans?

    Help us improve this page by answering our short survey about who uses this service, and what makes action plans useful to you.

    Open survey


    Don’t have time right now? Let us know your email address, and we’ll send you a link to the survey in a few days.

    Cite this page

    mySociety, Climate Emergency UK (2023). CAPE: Mid Devon District Council. Available at: http://cape.mysociety.org/councils/mid-devon-district-council/ [Accessed 6 Jun 2023].

    Alpha

    This is a new service – your feedback will help us improve it.