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Oxford City Council

Declarations & pledges

Climate emergency declaration

This council declared a climate emergency on Jan. 28, 2019.

Council only pledge for 2030

“Delivering the City Council’s 4th Carbon Management Plan, which aims to achieve zero carbon by 2030.”

Whole area pledge for 2040

“A net zero carbon city by 2040.”

Climate documents

Last update: March 16, 2022
Zero Carbon Action Plan | Oxford City Council

Action Plan · HTML · Approved · Council Only

Show more action plan documents
Zero Carbon Oxford Partnership Roadmap And Action Plan | Oxford City Council

Action Plan · HTML · 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

SectionOxford City CouncilAverage district council
Total score48%43%
Section 1 Governance, development and funding
11/21
9.4/21
Section 2 Mitigation and adaptation
9/18
8.1/18
Section 3 Commitment and integration
6/7
3.8/7
Section 4 Community, engagement and communications
4/9
4.7/9
Section 5 Measuring and setting emissions targets
4/5
2.6/5
Section 6 Co-benefits
1/4
1.9/4
Section 7 Diversity and inclusion
1/5
0.5/5
Section 8 Education, skills and training
1/5
1.5/5
Section 9 Ecological emergency
0/4
1.8/4

Emissions data

532.1 ktCO2

Total 2020 emissions

3.5 tCO2

per person

11.7 ktCO2

per km2

32%

Domestic

20%

Transport

17%

Commercial

17%

Public Sector

13%

Industry

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 Oxford 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
Cambridge City Council82%Yes2030Feb. 21, 2019
Cheltenham Borough Council81%Yes2030Feb. 18, 2019
City of London76%No2027No
Exeter City Council74%Yes2030July 23, 2019
City of Lincoln Council73%Yes2030July 23, 2019
Runnymede Borough Council72%NoNo targetOct. 17, 2019
Newcastle-upon-Tyne City Council70%Yes2030April 3, 2019
Worcester City Council69%Yes2030July 16, 2019
Sefton Metropolitan Borough Council68%Yes2030July 18, 2019
Canterbury City Council68%Yes2030July 18, 2019

These councils are the most similar to Oxford 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
Westminster City Council85%Yes2030Sept. 18, 2019
Nottingham City Council78%Yes2028Jan. 21, 2019
Cambridge City Council78%Yes2030Feb. 21, 2019
Cheltenham Borough Council76%Yes2030Feb. 18, 2019
London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham75%Yes2030July 17, 2019
Newcastle-upon-Tyne City Council75%Yes2030April 3, 2019
Aberdeen City Council73%Yes2045No
London Borough of Camden73%Yes2030April 8, 2019
City of London72%No2027No
City of Lincoln Council71%Yes2030July 23, 2019

Read more about how we calculate this.

Council nameSimilarityHas planCarbon Neutral byDeclared emergency
South Oxfordshire District Council97%Yes2025April 11, 2019
Cherwell District Council97%No2030July 22, 2019
Vale of White Horse District Council96%Yes2045Feb. 13, 2019
Oxfordshire County Council96%No2030April 2, 2019
West Oxfordshire District Council96%Yes2030June 26, 2019
West Berkshire Council95%No2030July 2, 2019
Warwickshire County Council94%Yes2030July 25, 2019
Reading Borough Council93%Yes2030Feb. 26, 2019
Buckinghamshire Council93%No2050No
Wokingham Borough Council92%Yes2030July 18, 2019

These councils are the most similar to Oxford 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
Exeter City Council94%Yes2030July 23, 2019
London Borough of Bexley89%NoNo targetNo
Worcester City Council88%Yes2030July 16, 2019
Cambridge City Council88%Yes2030Feb. 21, 2019
Rushmoor Borough Council88%Yes2030June 20, 2019
Brighton and Hove City Council87%Yes2030Dec. 13, 2018
Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council86%No2030March 28, 2019
Trafford Metropolitan Borough Council86%Yes2038Nov. 28, 2018
Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Borough Council86%Yes2030July 16, 2019
Castle Point Borough Council85%NoNo targetNo

These councils are the most similar to Oxford 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
West Midlands Combined Authority100%No2041June 28, 2019
Derby City Council99%Yes2050May 23, 2019
Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council99%NoNo targetJuly 6, 2020
Plymouth City Council99%Yes2030March 18, 2019
Worthing Borough Council98%YesJuly 18, 2019
Gosport Borough Council98%Yes2050No
Stevenage Borough Council98%No2030June 12, 2019
Ipswich Borough Council98%Yes2030July 9, 2019
Gloucester City Council98%Yes2030July 11, 2019
London Borough of Richmond upon Thames98%Yes2030July 9, 2019

Features

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

Integrated with Local Plan

Powers & Responsibilities

Oxford 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

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

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    Cite this page

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

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