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Norwich City Council

Declarations & pledges

Climate emergency declaration

This council declared a climate emergency on Jan. 29, 2019.

Council only pledge for 2030

“Reducing CO2 emissions from council operations to achieve net zero by 2030.”

Climate documents

Last update: March 16, 2022
Environmental Strategy 2020–25 | Norwich City Council

Action Plan · PDF · Council Only

Norwich City Council Document

HTML · 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

SectionNorwich City CouncilAverage district council
Total score33%43%
Section 1 Governance, development and funding
9/21
9.4/21
Section 2 Mitigation and adaptation
9/18
8.1/18
Section 3 Commitment and integration
2/7
3.8/7
Section 4 Community, engagement and communications
5/9
4.7/9
Section 5 Measuring and setting emissions targets
3/5
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

415.0 ktCO2

Total 2020 emissions

2.9 tCO2

per person

10.2 ktCO2

per km2

40%

Domestic

26%

Transport

13%

Industry

11%

Commercial

10%

Public Sector

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 Norwich City 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
Ipswich Borough Council88%Yes2030July 9, 2019
City of Lincoln Council84%Yes2030July 23, 2019
Hastings Borough Council81%Yes2030Feb. 13, 2019
London Borough of Enfield81%No2030July 8, 2019
Coventry City Council79%NoNo targetJune 18, 2019
Southend-on-Sea Borough Council79%No2030July 18, 2019
Derby City Council79%Yes2050May 23, 2019
Leicester City Council78%Yes2030Feb. 1, 2019
Eastbourne Borough Council78%Yes2030July 10, 2019
Brighton and Hove City Council78%Yes2030Dec. 13, 2018

These councils are the most similar to Norwich City 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
London Borough of Brent93%No2030July 8, 2019
Bristol City Council93%Yes2025Nov. 13, 2018
London Borough of Wandsworth92%Yes2050July 17, 2019
Worcester City Council91%Yes2030July 16, 2019
Reading Borough Council89%Yes2030Feb. 26, 2019
Glasgow City Council89%Yes2030May 16, 2019
Salford City Council89%No2038July 17, 2019
City of Edinburgh Council89%Yes2030Feb. 7, 2019
Greater London Authority88%YesDec. 1, 2019
Coventry City Council88%NoNo targetJune 18, 2019

Read more about how we calculate this.

Council nameSimilarityHas planCarbon Neutral byDeclared emergency
Broadland District Council99%No2050No
South Norfolk District Council99%NoNo targetNo
North Norfolk District Council97%Yes2030April 24, 2019
Norfolk County Council95%No2030No
Great Yarmouth Borough Council95%NoNo targetNo
Mid Suffolk District Council95%Yes2030July 25, 2019
Breckland District Council95%Yes2035Sept. 19, 2019
East Suffolk Council94%No2030July 24, 2019
Ipswich Borough Council92%Yes2030July 9, 2019
Babergh District Council91%Yes2030July 23, 2019

These councils are the most similar to Norwich City 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
Derby City Council92%Yes2050May 23, 2019
Newcastle-upon-Tyne City Council90%Yes2030April 3, 2019
Ipswich Borough Council89%Yes2030July 9, 2019
Glasgow City Council88%Yes2030May 16, 2019
West Midlands Combined Authority87%No2041June 28, 2019
Greater Manchester Combined Authority87%No2038July 26, 2019
Sunderland City Council84%Yes2030March 27, 2019
Plymouth City Council84%Yes2030March 18, 2019
South Tyneside Council84%No2030July 18, 2019
Salford City Council84%No2038July 17, 2019

These councils are the most similar to Norwich City 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
City of London100%No2027No
Kingston-upon-Hull City Council100%No2030March 21, 2019
Glasgow City Council99%Yes2030May 16, 2019
Brighton and Hove City Council99%Yes2030Dec. 13, 2018
London Borough of Richmond upon Thames99%Yes2030July 9, 2019
Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council99%No2030March 10, 2020
Wolverhampton City Council99%No2028July 17, 2019
Coventry City Council99%NoNo targetJune 18, 2019
Ipswich Borough Council98%Yes2030July 9, 2019
Stevenage Borough Council98%No2030June 12, 2019

Powers & Responsibilities

Norwich City 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

    norwich.gov.uk
    Norwich City Council’s official homepage.
    Tyndall Centre Carbon Budget report
    Check Norwich City 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 Norwich City Council’s climate performance, and actions you can take.

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    Cite this page

    mySociety, Climate Emergency UK (2023). CAPE: Norwich City Council. Available at: http://cape.mysociety.org/councils/norwich-city-council/ [Accessed 26 Mar 2023].

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