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North Devon Council

Declarations & pledges

Climate emergency declaration

This council declared a climate emergency on July 24, 2019.

Whole area pledge for 2030

“Furthermore this Council calls on Westminster to provide the powers and resources to enable North Devon to work towards becoming carbon neutral as soon as possible bearing in mind the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s target of 2030.”

Climate documents

Last update: March 16, 2022
Report: Environmental Policy 2020

Action Plan · PDF · Whole Area

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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

North Devon 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.

SectionNorth Devon CouncilAverage district council
Total score0%43%
Section 1 Governance, development and funding
0/21
9.4/21
Section 2 Mitigation and adaptation
0/18
8.1/18
Section 3 Commitment and integration
0/7
3.8/7
Section 4 Community, engagement and communications
0/9
4.7/9
Section 5 Measuring and setting emissions targets
0/5
2.6/5
Section 6 Co-benefits
0/4
1.9/4
Section 7 Diversity and inclusion
0/5
0.5/5
Section 8 Education, skills and training
0/5
1.5/5
Section 9 Ecological emergency
0/4
1.8/4

Emissions data

440.1 ktCO2

Total 2020 emissions

4.5 tCO2

per person

0.4 ktCO2

per km2

36%

Transport

30%

Domestic

14%

Industry

13%

Agriculture

5%

Commercial

2%

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 North Devon 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
Devon County Council84%Yes2030Feb. 21, 2019
Shropshire Council - Unitary83%No2030May 16, 2019
Mid Devon District Council82%Yes2030June 26, 2019
Somerset Council81%NoNo
Herefordshire Council80%Yes2030March 8, 2019
Dorset Council78%No2040May 16, 2019
Cornwall Council (Unitary)77%Yes2030Jan. 22, 2019
Denbighshire County Council74%No2030July 2, 2019
Forest of Dean District Council73%Yes2030Dec. 6, 2018
Carmarthenshire County Council73%Yes2030Feb. 20, 2019

These councils are the most similar to North Devon 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
Mid Devon District Council86%Yes2030June 26, 2019
Herefordshire Council86%Yes2030March 8, 2019
Shropshire Council - Unitary84%No2030May 16, 2019
East Ayrshire Council81%No2030No
Devon County Council80%Yes2030Feb. 21, 2019
Dorset Council77%No2040May 16, 2019
West Lindsey District Council76%No2050No
Inverclyde Council76%NoNo targetNo
Somerset Council75%NoNo
South Holland District Council72%NoNo targetNo

Read more about how we calculate this.

Council nameSimilarityHas planCarbon Neutral byDeclared emergency
Torridge District Council94%Yes2030July 1, 2019
Mid Devon District Council94%Yes2030June 26, 2019
West Devon Borough Council93%Yes2030May 21, 2019
Exeter City Council92%Yes2030July 23, 2019
Teignbridge District Council92%Yes2025April 18, 2019
Bridgend County Borough Council91%No2030July 22, 2022
Swansea City Council91%No2030June 27, 2019
Vale of Glamorgan Council90%Yes2030July 29, 2019
Neath Port Talbot County Borough Council90%NoNo targetSept. 28, 2022
South Hams District Council89%Yes2030July 25, 2019

These councils are the most similar to North Devon 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
Conwy County Borough Council98%No2030May 9, 2019
Rother District Council98%No2030Sept. 16, 2019
Norfolk County Council96%No2030No
Wrexham County Borough Council95%No2030Sept. 25, 2019
Midlothian Council94%No2030Dec. 17, 2019
South Ayrshire Council93%No2045No
Dumfries and Galloway Council92%Yes2025June 27, 2019
Breckland District Council92%Yes2035Sept. 19, 2019
Cannock Chase District Council90%No2030July 17, 2019
Rossendale Borough Council90%No2030Sept. 25, 2019

These councils are the most similar to North Devon 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
Westmorland and Furness Council99%NoNo
Shropshire Council - Unitary97%No2030May 16, 2019
Chichester District Council96%Yes2025July 9, 2019
Rother District Council96%No2030Sept. 16, 2019
North Yorkshire Council96%NoNo
Devon County Council95%Yes2030Feb. 21, 2019
East Devon District Council95%Yes2040July 24, 2019
Cornwall Council (Unitary)94%Yes2030Jan. 22, 2019
East Ayrshire Council94%No2030No
South Holland District Council93%NoNo targetNo

Powers & Responsibilities

North Devon 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

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

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    Cite this page

    mySociety, Climate Emergency UK (2023). CAPE: North Devon Council. Available at: http://cape.mysociety.org/councils/north-devon-council/ [Accessed 27 May 2023].

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