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Portsmouth City Council

Declarations & pledges

Climate emergency declaration

This council declared a climate emergency on March 19, 2019.

Whole area pledge for 2030

“Pledge to achieve net zero carbon emissions in the Portsmouth by 2030, considering, both production and consumption of emissions according to the Standard provided by the Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Protocol.”

Climate documents

Last update: Jan. 30, 2023
Climate Change Strategy

Climate Strategy · PDF · Whole Area

Show more climate strategy documents
Climate Emergency Strategy

Climate Strategy · PDF · We no longer hold a copy of this document

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

SectionPortsmouth City CouncilAverage single tier council
Total score38%50%
Section 1 Governance, development and funding
9/21
10.3/21
Section 2 Mitigation and adaptation
5/18
9.0/18
Section 3 Commitment and integration
4/7
4.1/7
Section 4 Community, engagement and communications
4/9
5.1/9
Section 5 Measuring and setting emissions targets
3/5
2.9/5
Section 6 Co-benefits
2/4
2.2/4
Section 7 Diversity and inclusion
0/5
0.9/5
Section 8 Education, skills and training
1/5
2.3/5
Section 9 Ecological emergency
1/4
2.1/4

Emissions data

625.9 ktCO2

Total 2020 emissions

2.9 tCO2

per person

10.4 ktCO2

per km2

35%

Domestic

29%

Transport

14%

Industry

14%

Commercial

8%

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 Portsmouth 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
Southampton City Council89%Yes2030Sept. 18, 2019
Royal Borough of Greenwich88%Yes2030June 26, 2019
Greater London Authority86%YesDec. 1, 2019
London Borough of Ealing85%Yes2030April 2, 2019
Luton Borough Council84%Yes2040Jan. 13, 2020
Leicester City Council84%Yes2030Feb. 1, 2019
Coventry City Council84%NoNo targetJune 18, 2019
London Borough of Hounslow83%Yes2030No
London Borough of Brent83%No2030July 8, 2019
Bristol City Council82%Yes2025Nov. 13, 2018

These councils are the most similar to Portsmouth 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
Royal Borough of Greenwich91%Yes2030June 26, 2019
London Borough of Brent90%No2030July 8, 2019
Bristol City Council89%Yes2025Nov. 13, 2018
Coventry City Council89%NoNo targetJune 18, 2019
Gloucester City Council88%Yes2030July 11, 2019
Greater London Authority88%YesDec. 1, 2019
Plymouth City Council88%Yes2030March 18, 2019
Liverpool City Council87%Yes2030July 17, 2019
Gosport Borough Council87%Yes2050No
Southampton City Council87%Yes2030Sept. 18, 2019
Council nameSimilarityHas planCarbon Neutral byDeclared emergency
Gosport Borough Council99%Yes2050No
Havant Borough Council99%Yes2050No
Fareham Borough Council98%Yes2030Oct. 24, 2019
Hampshire County Council98%No2050June 17, 2019
Winchester City Council96%Yes2024June 5, 2019
Isle of Wight Council96%No2030July 24, 2019
Eastleigh Borough Council96%Yes2025July 18, 2019
East Hampshire District Council96%No2050July 18, 2019
Southampton City Council95%Yes2030Sept. 18, 2019
Chichester District Council95%Yes2025July 9, 2019

These councils are the most similar to Portsmouth 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
Luton Borough Council88%Yes2040Jan. 13, 2020
Southampton City Council86%Yes2030Sept. 18, 2019
Royal Borough of Greenwich86%Yes2030June 26, 2019
London Borough of Ealing86%Yes2030April 2, 2019
Leicester City Council85%Yes2030Feb. 1, 2019
London Borough of Croydon82%YesNo targetJuly 15, 2019
Greater London Authority81%YesDec. 1, 2019
Coventry City Council80%NoNo targetJune 18, 2019
London Borough of Enfield78%No2030July 8, 2019
London Borough of Hounslow77%Yes2030No

These councils are the most similar to Portsmouth 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
London Borough of Merton100%No2030July 10, 2019
London Borough of Redbridge99%Yes2050June 20, 2019
Southampton City Council98%Yes2030Sept. 18, 2019
London Borough of Harrow98%Yes2030July 18, 2019
Greater London Authority97%YesDec. 1, 2019
Luton Borough Council97%Yes2040Jan. 13, 2020
London Borough of Hounslow96%Yes2030No
Leicester City Council96%Yes2030Feb. 1, 2019
Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames96%Yes2038June 25, 2019
Manchester City Council96%Yes2038July 10, 2019

Features

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

Powers & Responsibilities

Portsmouth City 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 English local authority powers in the UK100 Power Shift report.

    More about this council

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

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    Cite this page

    mySociety, Climate Emergency UK (2023). CAPE: Portsmouth City Council. Available at: http://cape.mysociety.org/councils/portsmouth-city-council/ [Accessed 1 Apr 2023].

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