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North Hertfordshire District Council

Declarations & pledges

Climate emergency declaration

This council declared a climate emergency on May 21, 2019.

Whole area pledge for 2030

“Most notably, in 2019, the Council passed a motion to declare a Climate Emergency, in this motion the Council pledged their commitment to do everything within its power to make North Hertfordshire Carbon Zero by 2030.”

Climate documents

Last update: June 21, 2022
North Herts Council Climate Change Strategy Completed Actions 2020

Progress Report · PDF · Whole Area
North Herts Council Climate Change Strategy Proposed Actions 2021- 2026

Action Plan · PDF · Whole Area
Climate Change Strategy 2021–2026

Climate Strategy · PDF · Whole Area
Climate Change | North Hertfordshire District Council

Summary Document · HTML · Whole Area

North Hertfordshire District Council Document

PDF · We no longer hold a copy of this document

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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

SectionNorth Hertfordshire District CouncilAverage district council
Total score31%43%
Section 1 Governance, development and funding
11/21
9.4/21
Section 2 Mitigation and adaptation
8/18
8.1/18
Section 3 Commitment and integration
1/7
3.8/7
Section 4 Community, engagement and communications
3/9
4.7/9
Section 5 Measuring and setting emissions targets
2/5
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
1/5
1.5/5
Section 9 Ecological emergency
3/4
1.8/4

Emissions data

499.0 ktCO2

Total 2020 emissions

3.7 tCO2

per person

1.3 ktCO2

per km2

37%

Transport

37%

Domestic

15%

Industry

6%

Commercial

2%

Public Sector

1%

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 North Hertfordshire 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
Hampshire County Council89%No2050June 17, 2019
Rochford District Council87%Yes2030No
Chelmsford City Council86%Yes2030July 16, 2019
Mid Sussex District Council86%YesNo targetNo
Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council86%Yes2025July 18, 2019
Bromsgrove District Council86%YesNo targetJuly 24, 2019
Hertfordshire County Council85%Yes2030July 16, 2019
St Albans City and District Council85%No2030July 9, 2019
Blaby District Council85%Yes2030No
Warwick District Council84%No2030June 26, 2019

These councils are the most similar to North Hertfordshire 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
Lewes District Council91%Yes2030July 15, 2019
West Sussex County Council91%Yes2030April 5, 2019
Hampshire County Council90%No2050June 17, 2019
Tonbridge and Malling Borough Council90%Yes2030July 9, 2019
Mid Sussex District Council90%YesNo targetNo
Essex County Council89%Yes2030No
Boston Borough Council89%NoNo targetJan. 20, 2020
Horsham District Council88%Yes2050June 26, 2019
Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council88%Yes2030Oct. 8, 2019
Warrington Borough Council88%Yes2030June 7, 2019

Read more about how we calculate this.

Council nameSimilarityHas planCarbon Neutral byDeclared emergency
Stevenage Borough Council99%No2030June 12, 2019
Welwyn Hatfield Council97%Yes2030June 19, 2019
East Hertfordshire District Council97%Yes2030No
Luton Borough Council97%Yes2040Jan. 13, 2020
St Albans City and District Council97%No2030July 9, 2019
Central Bedfordshire Council96%No2030July 19, 2019
Broxbourne Borough Council96%NoNo targetNo
Hertsmere Borough Council96%Yes2050Sept. 18, 2019
London Borough of Enfield95%No2030July 8, 2019
South Cambridgeshire District Council95%Yes2050Nov. 28, 2019

These councils are the most similar to North Hertfordshire 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
Leicestershire County Council99%No2030May 15, 2019
Chelmsford City Council98%Yes2030July 16, 2019
Central Bedfordshire Council98%No2030July 19, 2019
Wealden District Council98%Yes2050July 24, 2019
Hambleton District Council98%No2034Dec. 14, 2021
Craven District Council98%No2030Aug. 6, 2019
Warwick District Council97%No2030June 26, 2019
Richmondshire District Council97%Yes2030July 23, 2019
Stratford-on-Avon District Council97%Yes2030July 15, 2019
Sevenoaks District Council97%Yes2030No

These councils are the most similar to North Hertfordshire 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
Mid Sussex District Council98%YesNo targetNo
Vale of Glamorgan Council98%Yes2030July 29, 2019
North Somerset Council97%Yes2030Feb. 19, 2019
Bromsgrove District Council97%YesNo targetJuly 24, 2019
North East Derbyshire District Council97%Yes2030July 8, 2019
Bath and North East Somerset Council96%Yes2030March 14, 2019
North Lanarkshire Council96%Yes2030June 20, 2019
Canterbury City Council95%Yes2030July 18, 2019
Amber Valley Borough Council95%Yes2030July 24, 2019
Newcastle-Under-Lyme District Council95%No2030April 3, 2019

Powers & Responsibilities

North Hertfordshire 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

    north-herts.gov.uk
    North Hertfordshire District Council’s official homepage.
    Tyndall Centre Carbon Budget report
    Check North Hertfordshire 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 North Hertfordshire District Council’s climate performance, and actions you can take.

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    Cite this page

    mySociety, Climate Emergency UK (2023). CAPE: North Hertfordshire District Council. Available at: http://cape.mysociety.org/councils/north-hertfordshire-district-council/ [Accessed 1 Apr 2023].

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