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South Lanarkshire Council

Declarations & pledges

Climate emergency declaration

This council declared a climate emergency on Sept. 25, 2019.

Climate pledges

We couldn’t find any climate pledges from this council. If you’ve found one, let us know!

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

SectionSouth Lanarkshire CouncilAverage single tier council
Total score44%50%
Section 1 Governance, development and funding
7/21
10.3/21
Section 2 Mitigation and adaptation
7/18
9.0/18
Section 3 Commitment and integration
4/7
4.1/7
Section 4 Community, engagement and communications
6/9
5.1/9
Section 5 Measuring and setting emissions targets
2/5
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
2/5
2.3/5
Section 9 Ecological emergency
3/4
2.1/4

Emissions reduction projects

Local authorities in Scotland are required to publish yearly data on their compliance with their climate change duties – including the emissions reduction projects they are undertaking.

See all of South Lanarkshire Council’s projects

52

Projects

65.2 ktCO2 per year

Total annual emissions savings

£34,229,652

Total capital cost

Emissions data

1071.0 ktCO2

Total 2020 emissions

3.3 tCO2

per person

0.6 ktCO2

per km2

46%

Domestic

26%

Transport

12%

Industry

8%

Commercial

4%

Public Sector

4%

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 South Lanarkshire 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
West Lothian Council87%NoNo targetSept. 24, 2019
Falkirk Council85%Yes2030Aug. 26, 2019
Renfrewshire Council84%No2030June 27, 2019
North Lanarkshire Council84%Yes2030June 20, 2019
Midlothian Council83%No2030Dec. 17, 2019
Fife Council82%Yes2045Sept. 26, 2019
Chorley Council81%Yes2030Nov. 19, 2019
Lancaster City Council80%Yes2030Jan. 30, 2019
North of Tyne Combined Authority80%YesNo targetMay 7, 2019
Calderdale Metropolitan Borough Council79%Yes2038Jan. 30, 2019

These councils are the most similar to South Lanarkshire 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
East Renfrewshire Council89%No2040Aug. 13, 2020
Chorley Council87%Yes2030Nov. 19, 2019
Woking Borough Council86%Yes2030July 25, 2019
Tunbridge Wells Borough Council86%Yes2030July 17, 2019
Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council86%No2030March 28, 2019
Hertsmere Borough Council86%Yes2050Sept. 18, 2019
Buckinghamshire Council85%No2050No
Calderdale Metropolitan Borough Council85%Yes2038Jan. 30, 2019
Durham County Council84%Yes2030Feb. 20, 2019
Copeland Borough Council84%Yes2050No
Council nameSimilarityHas planCarbon Neutral byDeclared emergency
North Lanarkshire Council95%Yes2030June 20, 2019
West Lothian Council94%NoNo targetSept. 24, 2019
Falkirk Council94%Yes2030Aug. 26, 2019
Glasgow City Council93%Yes2030May 16, 2019
East Ayrshire Council93%No2030No
East Dunbartonshire Council92%Yes2045No
East Renfrewshire Council92%No2040Aug. 13, 2020
Clackmannanshire Council91%NoNo targetAug. 19, 2021
Dumfries and Galloway Council91%Yes2025June 27, 2019
City of Edinburgh Council91%Yes2030Feb. 7, 2019

These councils are the most similar to South Lanarkshire 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
West Lindsey District Council99%Yes2050No
East Staffordshire Borough Council97%Yes2040Aug. 17, 2020
Kent County Council96%Yes2030May 23, 2019
East Sussex County Council95%Yes2050Oct. 15, 2019
Bridgend County Borough Council95%No2030July 22, 2022
Sedgemoor District Council95%Yes2030March 20, 2019
Nottinghamshire County Council94%No2030May 27, 2021
North Lincolnshire Council94%Yes2030No
Fife Council93%Yes2045Sept. 26, 2019
Newark and Sherwood District Council93%Yes2035July 16, 2019

These councils are the most similar to South Lanarkshire 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
East Staffordshire Borough Council98%Yes2040Aug. 17, 2020
Hampshire County Council98%No2050June 17, 2019
Amber Valley Borough Council97%Yes2030July 24, 2019
Lancashire County Council96%No2030Feb. 28, 2019
Chelmsford City Council96%Yes2030July 16, 2019
West Lothian Council96%NoNo targetSept. 24, 2019
Newcastle-Under-Lyme District Council96%No2030April 3, 2019
Staffordshire County Council95%Yes2050July 25, 2019
North of Tyne Combined Authority95%YesNo targetMay 7, 2019
Lewes District Council95%Yes2030July 15, 2019

Features

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

Powers & Responsibilities

South Lanarkshire 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

    southlanarkshire.gov.uk
    South Lanarkshire Council’s official homepage.
    @SouthLanCouncil
    South Lanarkshire Council’s Twitter account.
    Tyndall Centre Carbon Budget report
    Check South Lanarkshire Council’s ‘carbon budget’ – their share towards meeting the UK’s Paris agreement targets.

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    Cite this page

    mySociety, Climate Emergency UK (2023). CAPE: South Lanarkshire Council. Available at: http://cape.mysociety.org/councils/south-lanarkshire-council/ [Accessed 22 Mar 2023].

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