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Royal Borough of Greenwich

Declarations & pledges

Climate emergency declaration

This council declared a climate emergency on June 26, 2019.

Whole area pledge for 2030

“In June 2019 the Council agreed to set an ambitious target to reach net zero carbon emissions 20 years ahead of the national target. This means building on 2016’s Greener Greenwich strategy and creating a new Greenwich carbon neutral plan with a 2030 target.”

Climate documents

Last update: Dec. 5, 2022
Carbon Neutral Plan 2021–2030

Action Plan · HTML · Approved · Whole Area

Show more action plan documents
Carbon Neutral Plan 2021–2030

Action Plan · PDF · Draft

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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

SectionRoyal Borough of GreenwichAverage single tier council
Total score64%50%
Section 1 Governance, development and funding
16/21
10.3/21
Section 2 Mitigation and adaptation
11/18
9.0/18
Section 3 Commitment and integration
5/7
4.1/7
Section 4 Community, engagement and communications
5/9
5.1/9
Section 5 Measuring and setting emissions targets
4/5
2.9/5
Section 6 Co-benefits
3/4
2.2/4
Section 7 Diversity and inclusion
1/5
0.9/5
Section 8 Education, skills and training
4/5
2.3/5
Section 9 Ecological emergency
2/4
2.1/4

Emissions data

740.5 ktCO2

Total 2020 emissions

2.6 tCO2

per person

14.7 ktCO2

per km2

39%

Domestic

36%

Transport

12%

Commercial

7%

Public Sector

6%

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 Royal Borough of Greenwich 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
London Borough of Ealing90%Yes2030April 2, 2019
London Borough of Hounslow88%Yes2030No
Portsmouth City Council88%No2030March 19, 2019
Greater London Authority88%YesDec. 1, 2019
London Borough of Waltham Forest86%NoNo targetApril 25, 2019
London Borough of Brent86%No2030July 8, 2019
London Borough of Lewisham84%Yes2030Feb. 27, 2019
London Borough of Redbridge83%Yes2050June 20, 2019
Luton Borough Council83%Yes2040Jan. 13, 2020
Southampton City Council82%Yes2030Sept. 18, 2019

These councils are the most similar to Royal Borough of Greenwich 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
Portsmouth City Council92%No2030March 19, 2019
London Borough of Lewisham90%Yes2030Feb. 27, 2019
Plymouth City Council90%Yes2030March 18, 2019
Gosport Borough Council88%Yes2050No
London Borough of Hounslow87%Yes2030No
Greater London Authority87%YesDec. 1, 2019
Coventry City Council87%NoNo targetJune 18, 2019
London Borough of Ealing86%Yes2030April 2, 2019
Brighton and Hove City Council85%Yes2030Dec. 13, 2018
London Borough of Barking and Dagenham85%No2030Jan. 30, 2020

Read more about how we calculate this.

Council nameSimilarityHas planCarbon Neutral byDeclared emergency
Kent County Council99%Yes2030May 23, 2019
London Borough of Newham99%Yes2050April 15, 2019
London Borough of Lewisham99%Yes2030Feb. 27, 2019
London Borough of Bexley99%NoNo targetNo
London Borough of Tower Hamlets99%No2025July 17, 2019
London Borough of Barking and Dagenham99%No2030Jan. 30, 2020
London Borough of Bromley99%Yes2027No
London Borough of Redbridge98%Yes2050June 20, 2019
London Borough of Southwark98%No2050March 27, 2019
London Borough of Waltham Forest98%NoNo targetApril 25, 2019

These councils are the most similar to Royal Borough of Greenwich 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
London Borough of Ealing94%Yes2030April 2, 2019
London Borough of Hounslow87%Yes2030No
Portsmouth City Council87%No2030March 19, 2019
London Borough of Brent86%No2030July 8, 2019
London Borough of Waltham Forest83%NoNo targetApril 25, 2019
Greater London Authority83%YesDec. 1, 2019
Slough Borough Council82%YesNo targetNo
London Borough of Croydon79%YesNo targetJuly 15, 2019
London Borough of Lewisham79%Yes2030Feb. 27, 2019
London Borough of Redbridge77%Yes2050June 20, 2019

These councils are the most similar to Royal Borough of Greenwich 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 Ealing100%Yes2030April 2, 2019
London Borough of Barking and Dagenham99%No2030Jan. 30, 2020
Greater London Authority97%YesDec. 1, 2019
London Borough of Redbridge95%Yes2050June 20, 2019
London Borough of Merton95%No2030July 10, 2019
Portsmouth City Council95%No2030March 19, 2019
London Borough of Waltham Forest93%NoNo targetApril 25, 2019
Southampton City Council92%Yes2030Sept. 18, 2019
London Borough of Harrow92%Yes2030July 18, 2019
Luton Borough Council92%Yes2040Jan. 13, 2020

Features

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

Comprehensive plan for mitigation Integrated with Local Plan Good on green jobs, skills & training

Powers & Responsibilities

Royal Borough of Greenwich is a London Borough, 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.

    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

    royalgreenwich.gov.uk
    Royal Borough of Greenwich’s official homepage.
    Tyndall Centre Carbon Budget report
    Check Royal Borough of Greenwich’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 Royal Borough of Greenwich’s climate performance, and actions you can take.

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    Cite this page

    mySociety, Climate Emergency UK (2023). CAPE: Royal Borough of Greenwich. Available at: http://cape.mysociety.org/councils/royal-borough-of-greenwich/ [Accessed 26 Mar 2023].

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