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Pembrokeshire County Council

Declarations & pledges

Climate emergency declaration

This council declared a climate emergency on May 9, 2019.

Council only pledge for 2030

“The Council has announced a climate emergency, and an action plan is in place to steer Pembrokeshire County Council towards becoming a net zero-carbon local authority by 2030.”

Climate documents

Last update: March 16, 2022

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

SectionPembrokeshire County CouncilAverage single tier council
Total score36%50%
Section 1 Governance, development and funding
10/21
10.3/21
Section 2 Mitigation and adaptation
15/18
9.0/18
Section 3 Commitment and integration
0/7
4.1/7
Section 4 Community, engagement and communications
2/9
5.1/9
Section 5 Measuring and setting emissions targets
1/5
2.9/5
Section 6 Co-benefits
1/4
2.2/4
Section 7 Diversity and inclusion
0/5
0.9/5
Section 8 Education, skills and training
3/5
2.3/5
Section 9 Ecological emergency
3/4
2.1/4

Emissions data

673.6 ktCO2

Total 2020 emissions

5.3 tCO2

per person

0.4 ktCO2

per km2

32%

Domestic

27%

Transport

19%

Industry

12%

Agriculture

10%

Commercial

1%

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 Pembrokeshire 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
Isle of Anglesey County Council80%Yes2030Sept. 8, 2020
Dumfries and Galloway Council71%Yes2025June 27, 2019
Carmarthenshire County Council70%Yes2030Feb. 20, 2019
Mid Devon District Council70%Yes2030June 26, 2019
Gwynedd County Council70%No2030March 7, 2019
Westmorland and Furness Council69%NoNo
North Devon Council68%Yes2030July 24, 2019
Shropshire Council - Unitary68%No2030May 16, 2019
Cornwall Council (Unitary)68%Yes2030Jan. 22, 2019
Cumberland Council68%NoNo

These councils are the most similar to Pembrokeshire 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
Westmorland and Furness Council78%NoNo
Isle of Anglesey County Council73%Yes2030Sept. 8, 2020
Staffordshire Moorlands District Council70%Yes2030July 10, 2019
Wrexham County Borough Council70%No2030Sept. 25, 2019
Cumberland Council68%NoNo
Dumfries and Galloway Council68%Yes2025June 27, 2019
East Lindsey District Council67%Yes2040No
Rother District Council67%No2030Sept. 16, 2019
Argyll and Bute Council66%Yes2045Sept. 30, 2021
Northumberland Council66%Yes2030June 11, 2019
Council nameSimilarityHas planCarbon Neutral byDeclared emergency
Carmarthenshire County Council88%Yes2030Feb. 20, 2019
Swansea City Council86%No2030June 27, 2019
Ceredigion County Council85%Yes2030March 5, 2020
Neath Port Talbot County Borough Council82%NoNo targetSept. 28, 2022
Torridge District Council81%Yes2030July 1, 2019
North Devon Council80%Yes2030July 24, 2019
Bridgend County Borough Council79%No2030July 22, 2022
Gwynedd County Council78%No2030March 7, 2019
Rhondda Cynon Taf County Borough Council77%Yes2050No
West Devon Borough Council76%Yes2030May 21, 2019

These councils are the most similar to Pembrokeshire 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
Isle of Anglesey County Council96%Yes2030Sept. 8, 2020
Herefordshire Council94%Yes2030March 8, 2019
Isle of Wight Council92%No2030July 24, 2019
Breckland District Council92%Yes2035Sept. 19, 2019
Boston Borough Council89%NoNo targetJan. 20, 2020
Dumfries and Galloway Council89%Yes2025June 27, 2019
Thurrock Council88%No2022Oct. 23, 2019
Cornwall Council (Unitary)88%Yes2030Jan. 22, 2019
Denbighshire County Council88%No2030July 2, 2019
Rother District Council86%No2030Sept. 16, 2019

These councils are the most similar to Pembrokeshire 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
Derbyshire Dales District Council97%No2030May 30, 2019
West Lindsey District Council97%No2050No
South Hams District Council94%Yes2030July 25, 2019
Argyll and Bute Council93%Yes2045Sept. 30, 2021
Mid Devon District Council93%Yes2030June 26, 2019
Babergh District Council93%Yes2030July 23, 2019
Isle of Anglesey County Council92%Yes2030Sept. 8, 2020
Cotswold District Council92%NoNo targetJuly 3, 2019
Rutland County Council90%No2050No
North Norfolk District Council88%Yes2030April 24, 2019

Features

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

Powers & Responsibilities

Pembrokeshire County Council is a Unitary Authority, 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.

    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.

    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.

    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.

    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
    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 collection and 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 local authority powers across the UK, at The Institute for Government.

    More about this council

    pembrokeshire.gov.uk
    Pembrokeshire County Council’s official homepage.
    Tyndall Centre Carbon Budget report
    Check Pembrokeshire County 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 Pembrokeshire County Council’s climate performance, and actions you can take.

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    Cite this page

    mySociety, Climate Emergency UK (2023). CAPE: Pembrokeshire County Council. Available at: http://cape.mysociety.org/councils/pembrokeshire-county-council/ [Accessed 6 Jun 2023].

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