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Norfolk County Council

Declarations & pledges

Climate emergency declaration

We don’t think this council has declared a climate emergency – let us know if it has!

Whole area pledge for 2030

“Striving to meet this collective global challenge, we will work with our neighbours within the region, specifically Suffolk County Council and theBroads Authority, to collectively achieve ‘net zero’ carbon emissions onour estates by 2030, but within our wider areas, work towards‘carbon neutrality’ also by 2030.”

Climate documents

We couldn’t find any climate action plans for this council.

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

Norfolk County Council 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.

SectionNorfolk County CouncilAverage county council
Total score0%40%
Section 1 Governance, development and funding
0/21
8.4/21
Section 2 Mitigation and adaptation
0/18
6.6/18
Section 3 Commitment and integration
0/5
2.7/5
Section 4 Community, engagement and communications
0/9
4.7/9
Section 5 Measuring and setting emissions targets
0/5
2.4/5
Section 6 Co-benefits
0/4
1.9/4
Section 7 Diversity and inclusion
0/5
0.2/5
Section 8 Education, skills and training
0/5
1.7/5
Section 9 Ecological emergency
0/4
1.5/4

Emissions data

4050.6 ktCO2

Total 2020 emissions

4.4 tCO2

per person

0.7 ktCO2

per km2

38%

Transport

32%

Domestic

16%

Industry

8%

Commercial

3%

Public Sector

3%

Agriculture

Data from the Department of Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy “subset dataset”, representing carbon dioxide emissions within the scope of influence of local authorities. Data has been combined from constituent local authorities.

These councils are the most similar to Norfolk County 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
Suffolk County Council88%Yes2030March 21, 2019
Lincolnshire County Council87%Yes2050No
East Suffolk Council84%No2030July 24, 2019
Breckland District Council82%Yes2035Sept. 19, 2019
Tendring District Council81%Yes2030Aug. 6, 2019
South Holland District Council81%NoNo targetNo
East Lindsey District Council80%Yes2040No
Braintree District Council79%Yes2030July 22, 2019
Rother District Council79%No2030Sept. 16, 2019
Boston Borough Council78%NoNo targetJan. 20, 2020

These councils are the most similar to Norfolk County 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
Suffolk County Council92%Yes2030March 21, 2019
South Kesteven District Council91%Yes2050Sept. 26, 2019
Rugby Borough Council91%Yes2030July 18, 2019
Nottinghamshire County Council90%No2030May 27, 2021
Staffordshire County Council90%Yes2050July 25, 2019
Lincolnshire County Council86%Yes2050No
Warwickshire County Council86%Yes2030July 25, 2019
East Staffordshire Borough Council86%Yes2040Aug. 17, 2020
West Northamptonshire Council85%NoNo targetNo
East Hertfordshire District Council85%Yes2030No
Council nameSimilarityHas planCarbon Neutral byDeclared emergency
Breckland District Council97%Yes2035Sept. 19, 2019
North Norfolk District Council97%Yes2030April 24, 2019
Norwich City Council95%Yes2030Jan. 29, 2019
Broadland District Council95%No2050No
South Norfolk District Council94%NoNo targetNo
King's Lynn and West Norfolk Borough Council94%Yes2050Feb. 4, 2020
Mid Suffolk District Council93%Yes2030July 25, 2019
West Suffolk Council92%No2030Sept. 19, 2019
Great Yarmouth Borough Council91%NoNo targetNo
Babergh District Council90%Yes2030July 23, 2019

These councils are the most similar to Norfolk County 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
North Devon Council96%Yes2030July 24, 2019
Rossendale Borough Council96%No2030Sept. 25, 2019
Allerdale Borough Council96%Yes2030Sept. 25, 2019
Rother District Council94%No2030Sept. 16, 2019
Conwy County Borough Council94%No2030May 9, 2019
Wrexham County Borough Council94%No2030Sept. 25, 2019
Denbighshire County Council93%No2030July 2, 2019
Ashford Borough Council92%Yes2030No
Dover District Council92%Yes2030Nov. 4, 2019
Carlisle City Council92%No2030March 5, 2019

These councils are the most similar to Norfolk County 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
Devon County Council97%Yes2030Feb. 21, 2019
Rother District Council96%No2030Sept. 16, 2019
Lincolnshire County Council96%Yes2050No
Wiltshire Council95%No2030Feb. 26, 2019
Dorset Council95%No2040May 16, 2019
Somerset County Council95%No2030Feb. 20, 2019
Monmouthshire County Council94%Yes2030May 16, 2019
Chichester District Council94%Yes2025July 9, 2019
South Oxfordshire District Council94%Yes2025April 11, 2019
North Yorkshire County Council93%Yes2030No

Powers & Responsibilities

Norfolk County Council is a County Council, 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
    Passenger transport

    Climate actions might include:

    • encouraging bus and private hire operators to use low-emission vehicles, through licensing requirements or Clean Air Zones
    • incentivising bus use by improving routes, timetables, and ticket prices through ‘Enhanced Partnerships’ with operators
    • proposing to central government the development of light rail / tram networks that integrate, rather than compete, with other modes of transport in the area

    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.

    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 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

    norfolk.gov.uk
    Norfolk County Council’s official homepage.

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    Cite this page

    mySociety, Climate Emergency UK (2023). CAPE: Norfolk County Council. Available at: http://cape.mysociety.org/councils/norfolk-county-council/ [Accessed 22 Mar 2023].

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