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Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea

Declarations & pledges

Climate emergency declaration

This council declared a climate emergency on Oct. 1, 2019.

Council only pledge for 2030

“To lead by example by becoming net zero carbon by 2030 from its operations and buildings - embedding the reduction of carbon emissions in all relevant Council decision-making and operations, where we have direct influence.”

Whole area pledge for 2040

“The borough to be carbon neutral by 2040 - ten years ahead of the Government’s targets.”

Climate documents

Last update: March 16, 2022
Air Quality And Climate Change Action Plan 2016–2021 Version 2 January 2019

Action Plan · PDF · Approved · Whole Area

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Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea Action Plan

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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 Kensington and ChelseaAverage single tier council
Total score62%50%
Section 1 Governance, development and funding
9/21
10.3/21
Section 2 Mitigation and adaptation
13/18
9.0/18
Section 3 Commitment and integration
5/7
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
4/4
2.2/4
Section 7 Diversity and inclusion
3/5
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

663.6 ktCO2

Total 2020 emissions

4.2 tCO2

per person

53.6 ktCO2

per km2

34%

Domestic

30%

Commercial

21%

Transport

9%

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 Kensington and Chelsea 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 Hammersmith & Fulham80%Yes2030July 17, 2019
London Borough of Wandsworth74%Yes2050July 17, 2019
Westminster City Council71%Yes2030Sept. 18, 2019
London Borough of Lambeth69%Yes2030Jan. 23, 2019
London Borough of Southwark68%No2050March 27, 2019
London Borough of Haringey66%Yes2027March 18, 2019
London Borough of Hackney64%Yes2040June 28, 2019
London Borough of Brent63%No2030July 8, 2019
London Borough of Islington63%Yes2030June 27, 2019
London Borough of Lewisham62%Yes2030Feb. 27, 2019

These councils are the most similar to Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea 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
Sefton Metropolitan Borough Council86%Yes2030July 18, 2019
Preston City Council81%No2030April 18, 2019
Newcastle-upon-Tyne City Council78%Yes2030April 3, 2019
Blackpool Borough Council76%Yes2030June 26, 2019
Aberdeen City Council74%Yes2045No
City of Lincoln Council73%Yes2030July 23, 2019
London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham73%Yes2030July 17, 2019
Canterbury City Council73%Yes2030July 18, 2019
Eastbourne Borough Council72%Yes2030July 10, 2019
Stevenage Borough Council72%No2030June 12, 2019

Read more about how we calculate this.

Council nameSimilarityHas planCarbon Neutral byDeclared emergency
London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham100%Yes2030July 17, 2019
Westminster City Council100%Yes2030Sept. 18, 2019
London Borough of Wandsworth99%Yes2050July 17, 2019
London Borough of Camden99%Yes2030April 8, 2019
Greater London Authority99%YesDec. 1, 2019
London Borough of Lambeth99%Yes2030Jan. 23, 2019
London Borough of Merton99%No2030July 10, 2019
London Borough of Islington99%Yes2030June 27, 2019
London Borough of Brent99%No2030July 8, 2019
City of London99%No2027No

These councils are the most similar to Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea 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
Westminster City Council91%Yes2030Sept. 18, 2019
London Borough of Camden85%Yes2030April 8, 2019
London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham74%Yes2030July 17, 2019
London Borough of Wandsworth70%Yes2050July 17, 2019
London Borough of Haringey61%Yes2027March 18, 2019
London Borough of Tower Hamlets61%No2025July 17, 2019
London Borough of Southwark61%No2050March 27, 2019
London Borough of Hackney56%Yes2040June 28, 2019
London Borough of Islington54%Yes2030June 27, 2019
London Borough of Lambeth53%Yes2030Jan. 23, 2019

These councils are the most similar to Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea 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
Westminster City Council99%Yes2030Sept. 18, 2019
London Borough of Camden98%Yes2030April 8, 2019
London Borough of Lambeth94%Yes2030Jan. 23, 2019
London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham91%Yes2030July 17, 2019
London Borough of Hackney91%Yes2040June 28, 2019
London Borough of Southwark89%No2050March 27, 2019
London Borough of Newham83%Yes2050April 15, 2019
London Borough of Wandsworth82%Yes2050July 17, 2019
London Borough of Islington81%Yes2030June 27, 2019
London Borough of Tower Hamlets81%No2025July 17, 2019

Features

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

Comprehensive plan for mitigation Strong on public health Good on green jobs, skills & training

Powers & Responsibilities

Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea 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

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

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    Cite this page

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

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